Bordering on perfection at Bramdean House (From Hampshire Society)

Bordering on perfection at Bramdean House

4:05pm Tuesday 5th May 2009

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The village of Bramdean is situated in the rolling chalk countryside between Winchester and Petersfield.

Victoria Wakefield was brought up at Bramdean House in the centre of the village, a most attractive 18th century mellow brick house that belonged to the Legge family for 100 years and which was enlarged in 1810 with additions in 1910.

Victoria’s mother did a basic plan for the layout of the garden, which is now a listed Grade II historic garden, but after the war there were not many plants and much of what you see today has been created since 1975 when Victoria and husband Hady moved in. The property now boasts one of the finest gardens in Hampshire with more interesting and unusual plants than you can find anywhere. This is not surprising when you learn Victoria is a highly regarded plantswoman.

She judges at Chelsea Flower Show for the Royal Horticultural Society (and at several other shows), she was a Trustee of Kew Gardens for six years and she is on the RHS Herbaceous Plants Committee and the Herbaceous Plants Trials sub-Committee.

One way or another, she has been attached to the RHS for more than 35 years. Her immense knowledge and enthusiasm is self-taught and she admits to being a complete “plantaholic”.

The five-acre gardens are mainly situated to the rear of the house on a sunny, south-facing slope. These are divided into three different areas.

From the house, you walk out onto a terrace with a bubbling fountain in a formal pool, surrounded in summer by pots of brugmansias and scented lilies. From here you see the most famous feature of the gardens at Bramdean: two mirror-image herbaceous borders which bisect the lawns. These are carefully managed and planned each winter to keep their symmetry correct, but nothing is added through the summer to fill gaps.

“What you see in February is what you get in the summer,” says Victoria.

The borders are spectacular and contain interesting plants such as the herbaceous Clematis x diversifolia ‘Hendersonii’ whose nodding bluebells are replaced by fluffy seed-heads, the tall Silphium perfoliatum (“very useful for the back of the border”) and Helenium flexuosa “Sahin’s Early Flowerer”, which lives up to its name and continues flowering for much of the summer.

Last year, Victoria tried “Chelsea Chopping” (cutting hard back in Chelsea week – mid to late May) a few of her Nepeta to extend the flowering season.

“It worked like a dream,” she says.

Around the walls of the lower part of the garden are mixed borders with shrubs such as the tiered Cornus contraversa “Variegata”, white-flowered Abutilon vitifolium “Tennant’s White” and deep plum-coloured Berberis, roses including “Sally Holmes” and the walls drip with soup-plate sized Clematis and other climbers.

Under giant limes and beeches grow snowdrops and aconites in quantity alongside the mauve Crocus thomasinianus – a marvel in the early part of the year – and Victoria also has many species Snowdrops.

A chalky bank is home to other bulbs, which come up in succession until their neighbouring grasses are tall enough to hide the bulbs’ foliage.

Victoria also grows the chalk-tolerant Magnolia acuminata Daphne – “the best of the yellow-flowered magnolias,” she says. The central part of the garden is called the vegetable garden but there is more than just vegetables growing there.

Up the central path are border carnations, replaced every three years with plants grown from seed, and Rosa “Mrs Oakley Fisher” is surrounded by blue and orange-flowered violas.

“They are the only thing to go with Mrs Oakley Fisher – I buy them from Homebase,” laughs Victoria.

The collection of old-fashioned sweet peas is special and the scent is delicious.

The oldest variety dates from 1699 but most were bred between the 1890s and 1910. Victoria is particularly proud to have bred a new cultivar called “Bramdean” (white), which has been awarded the coveted Award of Garden Merit by the RHS.

Victoria grows a large range of Nerine bowdenii to test their hardiness.

She also trains gooseberries and redcurrants in a special way with three vertical branches per bush.

“The plants don’t get mildew because the air can circulate, and you don’t get prickled when you pick the fruit,”

says Victoria.

There is also a long bed filled with peonies and more interesting climbers on all the walls. The glasshouse is stuffed with plants such as tender rhododendrons, michaelia, clivia and many more that I could not hazard a guess at!

The third, upper area of the garden is the orchard and is more or less just that, but with a few ornamental trees and shrubs among the apples, plums, medlars and quince.

Early on, there are drifts of daffodils and the yew and box tapestry hedge is an interesting feature.

The Apple Store (built in 1899) at the top of the garden is a wonderful place to stand and look down the central path that runs back to the house and enjoy the view of the gardens.

Victoria has two full time gardeners – Arthur Heppell and Phillip Ludlow, who are assisted by Eleanor Waterhouse, a student from WRAGS – Women Returners to Amenity Gardening.

The light chalky soil is mulched annually with home-made compost in spring, which feeds and enriches the soil, and, of course, helps to keep the weeds down.

I asked Victoria where she gets most of her plants, especially the newest discoveries and rarer species. “Gardeners give them to me,” she says. “They are generous people who always share their plants. Can you imagine a cook sharing her special recipes? Not on your life!”

And so it was that last summer, I departed from Bramdean House clutching a plant called a Dolichos lablab, which was a new bean to me and gave me much pleasure throughout the summer!

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