Village Gardeners
WE WERE PARTICULARLY PLEASED to welcome Philip Whaite, Head Gardener for the
last 25 years at Wimpole Hall, to our meeting; our first speaker of the year!
His topic was "Wimpole Hall gardens-past, present and future", which was very well illustrated with slides-the first being a plan of the garden in 1705, going right through to the present day.
In the early 18th century the garden was purely formal and had a large orangery. By the later part of the same century, Capability Brown, had swept away all the formal gardens to create open parkland, which in its turn in the 19th century, was back largely to the formal Victorian style, complete with a beautiful conservatory, which had a lovely Minton floor. During the inter-war years the garden became rather neglected and Mrs Bambridge (Kipling's daughter) had the conservatory pulled down - probably because it was too expensive to run.
The National Trust bought the property in 1975 and since then it has once again been a story of restoration-back too Victorian formality. The Dutch garden, full of Anemone Blanda; the parterre-planted in 1995, with 6000 box plants and still on going, the walled garden, which now grows all the vegetables for the Hall's restaurant and contains a wonderful "hot" garden in the summer.
Wimpole gardeners, of whom there are three full time and forty volunteers, don't seem to do anything by halves; bulbs are planted by the ton and dahlias by the thousand! Royalties from Kipling's work. money made from the sale of their vegetables and grants from gardening organizations, fund their considerable expenses.
There are still many more projects planned, including a water garden and meanwhile fund raising events continue. On the 19th and 20th August, there is another Tomato Day! 60 to 70 varieties to see and taste-all grown from seed by Mrs Whaite. But beware - as the last slide said - all plant thieves will be composted.
Our next meting will be on Tuesday 18th April, when our speaker will be Peter Walker talking about the ancient ancestors and wild relatives of our garden plants.
NB-please let us know if you would like to come to Sissinghurst Gardens on Sat. 1st July-an all day trip. Contact Roger Connan or Margaret Joyce.