I gather that people like lists. And it’s true we have a perpetual ‘garden list’ at home. So I thought you might appreciate a list of the things we enjoyed at Sissinghurst when we visited recently. Sissinghurst is a famous English garden made by Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson in the 1930s. They had exciting love lives – or at least, Vita did, which adds to the romance, of course, of a romantic garden.
My thanks to Charles for many of his pictures, taken under very difficult conditions. (Too much sun!)
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The Cast
Troy Scott Smith and Charles Hawes
Well, we enjoyed talking to the head gardener, Troy. Full disclosure, yes, we know him and no, it hasn’t made me say nice things because of it. Though I confess I am relieved that I’m not going to have problems appreciating Sissinghurst, unlike Great Dixter.
2. Delos
We went through to Delos. Perhaps we were lucky that we did this visit in heat, which was very fitting. Vita Sackville West and her husband Harold Nicholson did a thing which is not uncommon in the UK – they attempted to reproduce the joy of their holiday. They chose to make half an acre of a Greek Island on north-facing, winter-wet, heavy clay. Not surprisingly it didn’t work. However, designer Dan Pearson, Troy and the National Trust team have had another go, with considerable research, drainage and grit.
We loved it – and apparently it is actually still a pleasure in winter. It is also unusual currently in showing plants (appropriately) as individuals as opposed to being massed together. A interesting topic one day, perhaps.
3. The White Garden
From there to the famous White Garden. I need a wow in a garden and walking into this garden gives it.
This garden is reputed to have caused an outbreak of single colour gardens throughout the world. Though, of course, no garden is truly single coloured and wisely, other colours sneak in here. Though I did begin to feel verbascums were following me around.
4 The Cottage Garden
And yep, here they are again. They add height. In my experience they also add rapacious caterpillars. Not so much in South East England maybe.
But the Cottage Garden itself adds another welcome whop of drama and colour.
I cannot trail you all round this large garden. Some people enjoy such digital tours, but I don’t much enjoy making or reading them. So I will continue by picking out the treats – apart from the pots/containers, which I will come to later in a separate post.
5. The Moat.
The sight of clean water with ducks, moorhens and associated chicks was a delight on a hot day.
6. As was the Nuttery
Which existed when Vita and Harold first visited the garden and tipped them into a purchase which seemed reckless at the time.
Cool and shady with ferns:
Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive Fern) I think.
and as you emerge into the Lime Walk –
Ferns and a pot – such a good sight. Must be Matteuccia struthiopteris?
7. Bacchante Statue
A Bacchante is a pleasure seeking female follower of Bacchus. You know – the god of wine, vegetation, fertility, festivity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, theatre and that evening in the garden…..
I know I am not generally appreciative of statues of women in gardens but I loved this one. It is not, apparently original. I have found no reference to what was there originally, but this is by Simon Smith. It seems full of life and grace.
Not quite naked…
8. People sitting
There’s a relaxed feel to the garden and it’s good to see people enjoying it.
This sight stopped every passerby and it was impossible to take a really good photograph because people also rushed in to sit on the seat. We compensated by sending a long time sitting there too. The clematis – Perle D’Azur, is not original but another great addition. This is facing the Rose Garden – we missed the best of that.
This seat is no longer for sitting on. The price of opening to the public?
And some people have to work:
Troy Scott Smith, head gardener, gardening
9. Buildings
The Tower is a great backdrop to so many views.
It is so enviable to have beautiful buildings around the place:
10. Climbing the Tower
You can climb the Tower, passing Vita’s Writing Room on the way.
I think sometimes, some people, are allowed in….
And from the top you can see the garden from a different perspective:
Yes, Sissinghurst has the obligatory meadow – or rather, in this case, an orchard. Cut with a scythe…
Love the bloke with his arms akimbo. What’s he thinking?
Every garden should have a tower….
and hedges.
Conclusion.
It is an enormous challenge to maintain a great garden after the creator is dead. Some people maintain it’s not possible. I would suggest that it requires someone with their own vision of the garden, able to take imaginative leaps and not stay too rigidly to an idea of the past. Without ruining the place. Sissinghurst has had it’s ups and downs, but I was impressed enough by something Troy said early on to quote him on the Home Page of thinkingardens:
“When I say to people my primary focus at Sissinghurst is romance and beauty, they are shocked and seem unbelieving. Folk generally consider gardens to be about plants and horticulture.”
The task of cherishing this garden is made harder by the fact that Vita enjoyed having a seasonal or flowering climax in different areas, rather than having the whole garden attempt to be exciting all year round. That is clearly not acceptable these days to garden visitors, so historical inaccuracy is inevitable.
We loved our visit. There was variety, contrasts, surprises, great plants and considered views. And a historic context which gives you ridiculous envy for two people who are no longer even alive – but imagine finding this place, seeing its possibilities and realising them. To great acclaim and the subsequent company of other great gardeners.
It’s impossible here (by me) to do justice to the garden, which has been extensively written about, as you would discover if you Google it. And if you’re interested, you must get Tim Richardson’s book, “Sissinghurst, The Dream Garden“. The garden inspired him to poetry and there his poem is, at the end of the book. I can’t top that.
That was a great afternoon. Where are we going to build a tower?
Feel free!
“Arms akimbo”. Don’t hear that phrase much in the states. A word I have always liked. I don’t have a tower, but I can look out the attic window to get a view.
An attic window can give a great view. Views from windows are a very particular aspect of garden viewing.
“8. People Sitting” Is this fuzzy photo of a man staring at his phone some sort of wry commentary on our preoccupation with digital life while sitting in the midst of botanical pleasures?
It’s strange how reading, of any kind, on your phone doesn’t have the status that reading a book or a newspaper (I remember those….) has. But I believe it may have been a proper book.
However, one of my great pleasures is reading in a garden, pausing now and then to take in my surroundings. (Hopefully not exclusively botanical) Sometimes I enjoy a conversation in a garden. Or a meal. Or things maybe unmentionable…
Aren’t those things OK in a garden? Maybe I should do a post about what you can do in a garden and find out what other people think?
Apologies for the fuzz. I’m always a bit edgy about taking photos of people who are unaware.
Anne,
Many activities, I believe, are appropriate in the garden. Being an Old Fart, I associate reading with holding a book in your hand. What struck me was an analogous scene in the movie “Avalon”, wherein grandkids were in the same room as their grandfather . . . but instead of paying any attention to him, they were rapt in attention to the TV. There was no dialogue. The point in the movie, and now with me, is that we are becoming inured to the beauty and interest all around us . . . giving our attention, instead, to a digital artificial(?) world. Who knows what he, (the subject of your photo), was reading? I just can’t imagine traveling to Sissinghurst so you could look at a smartphone screen. Judgmental? Hell, yes! Maybe, his next stop will be to The Louvre where he can catch up on what Meghan Markle is doing.
I definitely remember looking up a few plant names while sitting in the midst of Delos in the rain under my umbrella. Folks passing by might have thought I was browsing Insta – but I took advantage of a quick zone check on some euphorbia that caught my eye. Sanctioned? 😉 – MW
Thank you for a gently appreciative review and views of a beautiful garden that lives on.
Loved the review. Glad to see Sissinghurst looking so good.
On a more everyday note, I’d love to see an article on plants as individuals. There’s a lot to be said there, I think.
On Sissinghurst plants or any old plants? I was thinking of doing some more plant pieces……
Any old plants!
OK – I always feel a little cautious because I am in the UK and Garden Rant is (still) mostly going to Americans. But ok – I’ll do plants sometimes!
And I know – Sissinghurst is in the UK!
While I totally concur that Delos has given Sissinghurst new life (and in my opinion, given it A life), your detailed posts on this garden and on Great Dixter makes me realize how much of garden making and analysis is subjective based on our tastes, however objective we wish it to be.
The view from the tower betrays the weakness of some of the garden’s main lines – though granted you do not notice as much when walking through. Troy Scott-Smith has done an absolutely terrific job and particularly with the white garden (which was looking fabulous when I was there too in May last year), but I don’t know that I will ever be totally smitten; and I wonder how much of that has to do with my dislike of Vita Sackville-West and her lionization (good Lord did I say that out loud?) Conversely, (and rightly) I must then wonder how much of my fondness for Dixter was first anchored in my love of Christopher Lloyd’s writing. Stuff to ponder certainly.
PS I thought the photos were great. – MW
If you think that about the garden’s lines, you really must read Tim Richardson’s book, where he praises how creatively Nicolson accommodated the problems of the site.
And – interesting: I’d swop a morning with Lloyd for one with Vita any old time. I like his books but I didn’t take to him. But we are certainly subjective about people.
Curiously though, I have discovered that when people do attempt a serious critique of a garden they usually find the same strengths and weaknesses. For eg when Sara Maitland and I agreed to do a review of East Ruston https://thinkingardens.co.uk/reviews/east-rushton-old-vicarage-reviewed-by-sara-maitland-and-anne-wareham/ we both expected that our reviews would offer quite different perspectives. But not. Similarly when I reviewed gardens with Stephen Anderton.
Worth discovering more about, but it won’t happen in my lifetime!
Thanks re photos!
M.,
Wow! A contronym . . . “sanctioned”! We are left to wonder whether you sought approval or censure.
My words missed their target. One was that I agreed, Sissnghurst is a place of beauty to be admired. The second was an inquiry into the heart of the photographer . . . . that is, was there thought behind the photo?
J.
Yes, there was. Seeing someone so relaxed in the garden seemed to me to speak to its atmosphere.
I read Nigel Nicholson’s Portrait of a Marriage, the biography of his parents, long ago. I was impressed with Vita and Harold’s working relationship, but I don’t remember being taken with the garden on my first visit, or on the second or third go round. I can’t explain why. It was fussed over. Nothing out of place. This iconic garden…How could I have wanted more?Now, your images of Delos at Sissinghurst make me want to visit again.
I think the head gardeners have had a big impact. You might find it feels different under Troy. He is perhaps more conscious of its origins and less of keeping it neat and tidy.
But I think all the staff have perhaps struggled with the National Trust.
I’ve never been to Sissinghurst sadly, but its influence is everywhere in UK gardens as I know you are aware, and I would love to go one time. I see its influence much like an old classic black and white film. It may seem a little dated, but there is no doubting it shaped the future of the art form.
When ever I read anything on Sissinghurst I’m always reminded of that unattributed, but often used quote in tourism brochures up here in Scotland that Crathes Castle is the “Sissinghurst of the North” , which makes me wonder if someone has ever walked into Sissinghurst, turned to their partner and said “do you know, this reminds me so much of Crathes”.
Having read a little on Vita Sackville-West and her work, I think she’d have probably hated the idea of commoners walking round her beloved castle and garden. But then again, the National Trust properties have a number of roles and one of those is to be the nation’s dress-up box where we get to pretend we would have been welcomed into those grand old houses and gardens rather than the truth of it which is that most of us would never have gotten past the front gate!
Vita S-W did despise the NGS visitors, called them the ‘shillinges’, which tells you how much they paid.
I don’t know Crathes Castle. But I do get fed up that we so admire, and the National Trust maintains, so many dead people’s gardens. I think no-one yet knows which are the truly great contemporary gardens.
I have been to Sissinghurst twice, once in August 2017 and then again in June 2023. In 2023, after Troy delivered a pleasant welcoming talk to our group, I found the garden much more relaxed in places than it had been in 2017, which Troy had said was an attempt to bring the garden back to what it may have been back when the gardens were in their hay day. Still, there were too many visitors around for me to enjoy what might be looked at in the main rooms, so I escaped the crowd and walked through the much quieter Delos. Delos, in style and substance, reminded me of dry gardens we have in Texas, with many of the same plants we use and some new ones that we should investigate for use in parking islands. Overall, I came away feeling that the pressure for the Sissinghurst team to attract the masses and make the money needed to support other National Trust properties is far more intense than it should be. The gardeners barely have room to turn around lest they knock a visitor. I don’t know that I’ll return unless I happen to be in the neighborhood in early spring with someone who hasn’t been there before.
Surprisingly Sissinghurst wasn’t terribly busy when we went. Nor Dixter. More visitors than we ever get all at once but not enough to be oppressive.
We visited Sissinghurst again this weekend. More loosely planted than I remembered (part of the effort to restore the original plating style rather than the typical NT ‘gardenesque’?) and looking very ‘August’. It has a magic (like Rousham), and I was glad to see that it wasn’t lost on you! Maybe this magic has something to do with the articulated spaces??
There’s a bit more to the differences between Rousham and Sissinghurst than the articulated spaces??
But it’s true that part of the pleasure of Sissinghurst was in the variety, moving from one very different place to another.
(And the contrast with Dixter)
Although Rousham and Sissinghurst are so very different in planting, might the articulation of spaces be one of the keys to the ‘magic’ commonly ascribed to them?
I’m not sure what ‘articulation’ means in this context?
The way in which the spaces fit together……both are non’-linear, and complex, with many possible combinations, and not readily appraised……the vantage point of the Sissinghurst tower helps a lot to sort it out …..a rich environment?
Thinking of other gardens that share similar spatial magic……Denmans, Shute House?
Try Veddw?
It must be 15 years since I saw Veddw! Perhaps I should venture into Wales again……