English Garden: Great Dixter

English Garden: Great Dixter

Tucked away in the peaceful East Sussex English countryside, Great Dixter is a spectacular English home and garden created by Christopher Lloyd, one of the Britain’s greatest horticultural talents.

Famous English gardens visit

You are unlikely ever to see a more perfect and pleasing combination of English house and garden that the one at Great Dixter in East Sussex, England. Until 2006, this was the home of Christopher Lloyd, one of the 20^thcentury’s most inspired gardeners. Christopher Lloyd’s English garden, a riotous spectacle of blooms stretching from April to October, is a horticultural masterpiece, itself splendidly set off by the warm tones of a timber-and-tiled building with a more-than-surprising history.

Since Christopher Lloyd (1921-2006) – or ‘Christo’, as he was known to his friends and family – passed away at the age 84, the house, English garden and its wider estate have been run by the Great Dixter Charitable Trust. A special “Great Dixter Conservation Project’ has initiated a series of important repairs to Great Dixter house, the first of which has just been completed. Meanwhile, in the English garden, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable horticultural team is ably keeping the spirit and spectacle of the English garden alive. Despite the sad disappearance of its owner, there has, it seems, never been a better time to visit Great Dixter.

Even before Christopher Lloyd made his English garden famous for its exuberant planting, Great Dixter had already developed a reputation. In 1910 Christopher Lloyd’s father, Nathaniel Lloyd, bought this small farm estate on the edge of the English village Northiam. At its heart was a derelict 15^th-century timber-brick house with wonderful beautiful views of the mellow Sussex countryside. Nathaniel must have realized that with the help of an experienced architect, he could transform Dixter into the ideal English home and garden in which to raise a family with his young wife Daisy. He found a perfect man in Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), now revered as one of Britain’s greatest ever architects.

Grand design

Oitside, Lutyens set to work designing the framework of the English garden in an appropriately Arts & Crafts English style. He introduced English garden compartments or ‘rooms’ surrounded by yew hedging and added elements of hard landscaping such as steps, doorways, terraces and paths, many of which remain to this day in the beautiful Great Dixter English garden. Nathaniel made his mark by planting topiary, a classic English garden feature of the Arts & Crafts gardening style, and even went on to write a topiarist’s handbook entitled Garden Craftsmanship in Yew and Box. In 1913, just three years after it was bought, Great Dixter appeared in Country Lifemagazine, illustrated by pictures taken by Nathaniel Lloyd. He was sp pleased with his snaps that he turned them into postcards.

Grand Dixter: Nature’s way

For just over 20 years, Nathaniel and Daisy lived happily together at Great Dixter, raising their six children, of whom Christo was the youngest. Then, in 1933, Nathaniel died and it fell upon Daisy to look after her family, staff and estate. She, more than any other person, was the greatest influence in Christopher Lloyd’s life. It was Daisy who sparked his interest in nature, plants and gardening at an early age. Even when he went to prep school and later university, mother and son continued to share their passion by exchanging letters on the gardening subject. When the Second World War broke out, Christo entered the army, but on his days off nothing could stop him from exploring the countryside in search of flowers.

Famous English gardens visit

Flowers became Christopher Lloyds ultimate passion and once the war ended he joined Wye College in Kent to study for a BSc in decorating horticulture. Being close to home meant that he could return at weekends, spend time with Daisy and take a more active role in the English garden. A year after graduating and aged just 30, he was offered a job as an assistant lecturer at Wye College; he used the plants grown at Great Dixter English garden as a material for his lessons. By 1954, having left teaching behind, he set up his own nursery next to his English garden. Everyone knows that English rose is one of the favorite flower in the English garden.

Great Dixter true colour

Over the course of the next half century. Christopher Lloyd transformed Great Dixter into an icon of British gardening. He fleshed out the bones left out by Lutyens and his father and created eye-popping floral displays. Among his most famous achievements is the incredibly long, and appropriately named, Long Border. Although originally laid out by Lutyens, Christopher Lloyd stretched its length by a third. Mixing shrubs, perennials, annuals and bulbs, this fabulous and ever-changing English garden creation offers a bounty of blooms from April to October. Another highlight is the Exotic Garden. Here, Christo and Fergus (his head gardener) uprooted the roses planted by Daisy and created a sensational late summer to early autumn subtropical paradise, with impressive cannas, dahlias, yuccas and bananas. “It’s just like a Rousseau painting,” explains Fergus.

Many 21^st-century gardeners and designers proudly credit Christopher Lloyd as their biggest inspiration. His approach was refreshingly unhindered by past styles and contemporary expectations. Christopher Lloyd pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved with flowers and became famous for his adventurous colour combinations and his love of experimentation. He once wrote: “I take is as a challenge to combine every sort of colour effectively.” At Great Dixter, he created an intense flower English garden with an ever-changing and astonishingly long season of interest in which no patch of ground was wasted. Even paved surfaces were filled with joyous combinations of potted plants. As much as gardening, writing was part of Christopher Lloyd’s daily routine. Christo’s famous writing style: personal, entertaining and thoroughly opinionated. As well as offering practical advice, almost like a friend he shares his joy of gardening: “Gardening is one of those creative activities that produces an enjoyable sensation of achievement…”

Loss and legacy

Christopher Lloyd’s death was a sad loss to the gardening world, but he has been masterfully succeed by Fergus Garrett. While continuing to look after the Great Dixter English garden, he is responsible for the Trust and for training horticular students on site, some of whom reside in the Lutyens wing in the house. He, like Christo, believes in an intensive approach to planting; what he describes as ‘gardening in the fast lane’.

Despite the visitors, there is s sense that this is still very much an evolving private garden with learning and experimentation at its center  rather than that which is now forever ‘set in stone’.

GETTING THERE

If you driving from London, head towards Sevenoaks and then continue down the A21 (about 1h 45 min). Trains run from St Pancras and Ashford International to Rye, which is a 30-minute bus journey to Northiam village where Great Dixter is located.

WHERE TO STAY

Budget: Boasting a lovely English garden and a quiet location just outside Northiam, South Grange Bed and Breakfast (southgrange-northiam.co.uk) has single and double rooms each priced at £27.50 per person per night. Tel: 01797 252 984.

Luxury: Recently renovated, the George in Rye (thegeorgeinrye.com) offers 4-star contemporary accommodation within a 16^th-century historic building, with rooms starting from £135 per night. Tel: 01797 222 114

MORE INFORMATION

Great Dixter, Northiam, East Sussex, House and gardens open 1April – 31 October, Tuesday and Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays. Gardens open 11am – 5pm, house opens 2-5pm. House and gardens: Adults £9.35, child £4.40. Gardens only: Adult £7.70, child £3.85. For more details, please call 01797 252 878

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