Waterperry Gardens
May 1st 2010
Waterperry house and gardens, in oxfordshire which was originally home to the Horticultural College between 1932 and 1971 the gardens are really beautiful and a lot of the border planting particuarly is reminiscent of the arts and crafts movement / painterly style borders of Gertrude Jekyll. Mary spiller is the design consultant responsible for the majority of the design of the gardens, having herself graduated from the school to become a teacher, horticultural manager and then head gardener before her current design role.
I really appreciated the gentle painterly approach to the design of the garden, particularly the Mary Rose gardens, (which were planted in 1991 and are now well established and flourishing) and the canal and surrounding area. the canal is a strip of water (probably better described as a sort of rectangular pond) which joins the herbacious nursery to 'Mirandas border'. It is cleverly designed to allow the clear vista from the top lawn over the countryside to remain, whilt still being a beautiuful and interesting feature in itself. In the centre of the canal stands a statue of Miranda from Shakespeare's 'Tempest' sculpted by Tanya Russel, it is elegant and eautiful and seems to fit the aesthetic of the garden well. The formal gradens were also very interesting, based (loosely) on a Tudor garden, it comprises of plants which might have been found in gardens from multiple eras including Tudor, Stuart, Georgian and Victorian, and also has a sculpture of a girl holding the 'lamp of wisdom'.
I thoroughly enjoyed the gardens and found them very therapeutic and relaxing.
