Fools Spring

Planting plans for the formal parterre on Betley Court's south-facing lawn

This week, unseasonably warm weather starts me thinking about new planting plans

Along with the rest of the UK, the gardens of Betley Court on the North Staffordshire/South Cheshire border are enjoying unseasonably warm weather. The ‘volunteer’ cherry trees in the old gallery yard are on the cusp of flowering a good six to eight weeks earlier than I would’ve expected. Daffodils on the sunnier borders have popped up at the same time as the snowdrops this year. And our bargain bulb selection, bought at Manchester’s Christmas Market at the end of 2018 are beginning to peep up in their pots. 

I saw this precocious Spring described somewhere as a ‘Fools’ Spring’. The description came with a warning that all those people and plants that burst in to summer mode too quickly will be swiftly smited when the winter returns to punish their folly. BBC Gardeners’ World presenter, Monty Don made a quite different observation. He recalled that the last time the UK had quite such a warm February, it was followed by a drought, the famous Long Hot Summer of 1976 of my childhood. We may well have to start contingency plans for water conservation in the gardens.  I wonder if Nigel has any money spare in the budget for buying water butts?

Alternatively, a drought contingency solution may lie underneath the house. One of the apartments in Betley Court, Twemlow Lodge, has a cellar-like room underneath its octagonal living room. This subterranean chamber sits below the water table, and once filled all year round with run-off from the roofs. We had to divert the rainwater - it made the living room rather damp-smelling. The thought is there that we could save water in the chamber if we chose. Another apartment, Fenton Cote, has a water softener (it looks like a well in the middle of the sitting room - honestly!). This fills with cool, clear spring water. Theoretically, we could extract this, but I’m just guessing we would need some sort of license from the Environment Agency to do so. Oh, and the permission of the poor tenants who suddenly found their living rooms turned into a mini pumping stations, just so I can keep the potted plants happy!

This warm weather is beginning to make me panic just a little. Sure, the pretty flowers we covet are starting to grow, but so are the more invasive ones (as I’ve said before, I refuse to assign them the pejorative term ‘weeds’). I am going to have to get planting. After all, bare ground makes the perfect seedbed for opportunistic annuals. Best get my choice of plants in the ground, first!

I started on plans for the formal flowerbeds of the parterre on the south lawns this week. I’m old fashioned, I use pencil and paper to make a scale plan. Next, I map in the features and plants we’re going to keep, in this case the Buxus hedge along the edges, and the topiary balls and cones. I’ve surveyed existing perennial and annuals. They will either be kept where they are, kept and moved to a new position, or erm…composted.

That leaves spaces on the plan to be filled. I have a nifty little stencil, green plastic with different sized holes in. I can draw varying sized circles, and these represent, at scale, each of the plants I want to plant, and where.

The other variable to consider is the affect time will have. That is, the changes in size and habit of the plants as they grow, and when they do their seasonal best, be it winter flowers, stunning summer blooms or autumn coloured leaves. The writer Caitlyn Moran described this aptly in her interview for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs,

“Its about playing with time. When you create a garden, you’re making it in the present but you’re imagining it in the future….so it’s like time travel.”

In the past, I’ve had the privilege of working on several show gardens at RHS flower shows, as well as designing two show features, and pop up gardens for events and festivals in my ‘other job’. Even then, when you’ve got a short time window to get it looking great, it is quite a challenge to team plants to create a marvellous artifice of horticultural perfection.  A ‘real’ garden calls for a more sustained approach. We’re lucky at Betley Court Gardens, different parts of the grounds are at their best at different times of year. Any new planting schemes just needs to enhance them or fill in the gaps in interest.

Ideas for the planting list coming together

I’m taking a pragmatic approach to the border design. The overarching scheme is based on colour, so after the spring bulbs have died back, the beds will have colour-themed annuals and perennials. The two long borders will be in hot colours – reds, oranges and yellows, tying-in with the orange Crocosmia and Hypericum that cascade down the steps from the drawing room. The two circular beds will have a warm palette of pinks and purples. The two broad beds, furthest from the house will be planted with cooler coloured plants, blues and deep purples. These are bounded by Buxus hedges and topiary balls that were planted over the past six years. They provide the framework that will give interest and structure throughout the year, even in winter. There is some money for plants in the budget, and being resourceful gardeners, we will be supplementing it by adding;

·         What we can get cheap

·         What we can blag (it’s amazing what folk will give away!)

·         What we can propagate from our garden and family and friends’ gardens

·         Growing from seed

We know that the design of the parterre dates to between 1909 and 1925, and the box-hedging and topiary is a nod back to the Arts and Crafts style of that period. Alan Taylor, senior conservation officer with Stafford County Council in the 1990s attributed our parterre to garden landscaper Thomas Mawson. Although our research cannot confirm this, it does bear some resemblance to Mawson’s parterre at nearby Little Onn Hall, from around this period.

Mawson's design for Little Onn Hall

Mawson also designed Hanley Park, which is currently benefitting from the most marvellous restoration, thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant. In fact, if you visit, you’ll notice that Mawson’s parterres are being re-imagined, but you’ll recognise the box hedging and topiary shapes hemming in looser planting. So, whether or not Mawson originally designed our borders, I think we’re honouring the past whilst planting for the future. Living conservation, as Professor Brown would put it.

I’m off to make the most of the sun, Fool’s Spring or not!!

Ladybird Su