Sissinghurst Castle
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Sissinghurst Sissinghurst is a small village in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. Originally called ''Milkhouse Street'' (also referred to as ''Mylkehouse''), Sissinghurst changed its name in the 1850s, possibly to avoid association with the smu ...
in the
Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
of
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
in England, was created by
Vita Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...
, poet and writer, and her husband
Harold Nicolson Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster, and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West. Early lif ...
, author and diplomat. It is among the most famous gardens in England and is designated Grade I on
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
's
register of historic parks and gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...
. It was bought by Sackville-West in 1930, and over the next thirty years, working with, and later succeeded by, a series of notable head gardeners, she and Nicolson transformed a farmstead of "squalor and slovenly disorder" into one of the world's most influential gardens. Following Sackville-West's death in 1962, the estate was donated to the
National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
. It is one of the Trust's most popular properties, with nearly 200,000 visitors in 2017. The gardens contain an internationally respected plant collection, particularly the assemblage of old garden roses. The writer
Anne Scott-James Anne Eleanor Scott-James, Lady Lancaster (5 April 1913 – 13 May 2009) was a British journalist and author. She was one of Britain's first female career journalists, editors and columnists, and latterly author of a series of gardening boo ...
considered the roses at Sissinghurst to be "one of the finest collections in the world". A number of plants propagated in the gardens bear names related to people connected with Sissinghurst or the name of the garden itself. The
garden design Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise. ...
is based on axial walks that open onto enclosed gardens, termed "
garden room In gardening, a garden room is a secluded and partly enclosed space within a garden that creates a room-like effect. Such spaces have been part of garden design for centuries. Generally they are regarded as different from terraces and patios just o ...
s", one of the earliest examples of this gardening style. Among the individual "garden rooms", the White Garden has been particularly influential, with the horticulturalist
Tony Lord Tony Lord is a United Kingdom gardener, photographer and author. In 2005 the Royal Horticultural Society awarded him the Victoria Medal of Honour (V.M.H) for his work as a garden photographer, horticultural consultant and writer. Lord started ou ...
describing it as "the most ambitious ... of its time, the most entrancing of its type." The site of Sissinghurst is ancient and has been occupied since at least the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. The present-day buildings began as a house built in the 1530s by
Sir John Baker John Baker or Jon Baker may refer to: Military figures *John Baker (American Revolutionary War) (1731–1787), American Revolutionary War hero, for whom Baker County, Georgia was named *John Baker (RAF officer) (1897–1978), British air marshal ...
. In 1554 Sir John's daughter Cecily married
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (153619 April 1608) was an English statesman, poet, and dramatist. He was the son of Richard Sackville, a cousin to Anne Boleyn. He was a Member of Parliament and Lord High Treasurer. Biography Early life ...
, an ancestor of Vita Sackville-West. By the 18th century the Baker's fortunes had waned, and the house, renamed Sissinghurst Castle, was leased to the government to act as a prisoner-of-war camp during the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
. The prisoners caused great damage and by the 19th century much of Sir Richard's house had been demolished. In the mid-19th century, the remaining buildings were in use as a
workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
, and by the 20th century Sissinghurst had declined to the status of a farmstead. In 1928 the castle was advertised for sale but remained unsold for two years. Sackville-West was born in 1892 at
Knole Knole () is a country house and former archbishop's palace owned by the National Trust. It is situated within Knole Park, a park located immediately to the south-east of Sevenoaks in west Kent. The house ranks in the top five of England's large ...
, the ancestral home of the Sackvilles. But for her sex, Sackville-West would have inherited Knole on the death of her father in 1928. Instead, following
primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
, the house and the title passed to her uncle, a loss she felt deeply. In 1930, after she and Nicolson became concerned that their home
Long Barn Long Barn, located in the village of Sevenoaks Weald, Kent, is a Grade II* listed building and a Grade II* registered garden. Reputedly the birthplace of William Caxton, the house was later the home of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. ...
was threatened by development, Sackville-West bought Sissinghurst Castle. On purchasing Sissinghurst, Sackville-West and Nicolson inherited little more than some oak and nut trees, a
quince The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...
, and a single old rose. Sackville-West planted the
noisette rose Garden roses are predominantly hybrid roses that are grown as ornamental plants in private or public gardens. They are one of the most popular and widely cultivated groups of flowering plants, especially in temperate climates. An enormous number ...
'Madame Alfred Carrière' on the south face of the South Cottage even before the deeds to the property had been signed. Nicolson was largely responsible for planning the garden design, while Sackville-West undertook the planting. Over the next thirty years, working with her head gardeners, she cultivated some two hundred varieties of roses and large numbers of other flowers and shrubs. Decades after Sackville-West and Nicolson created "a garden where none was", Sissinghurst remains a major influence on
horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
thought and practice.


History


Early history

The site is ancient; "hurst" is the
Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
term for an enclosed wood.
Nigel Nicolson Nigel Nicolson (19 January 1917 – 23 September 2004) was an English writer, publisher and politician. Early life and education Nicolson was the second son of writers Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West; he had an elder brother Ben, ...
, in his 1964 guide, ''Sissinghurst Castle: An Illustrated History'', records the earliest owners as the de Saxinhersts. Stephen de Saxinherst is named in an 1180 charter about the nearby
Combwell Priory Combwell Priory was a priory near Bedgebury Cross about 10 miles southeast of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. History This is a Grade II listed building. It was founded as an abbey by Robert de Turneham in the reign of Henry II but in 1220 i ...
. At the end of the 13th century the estate had passed, through marriage, to the de Berhams. Nicolson suggested that the de Berhams constructed a moated house in stone, of an appearance similar to that of
Ightham Mote Ightham Mote (), Ightham, Kent is a medieval moated manor house. The architectural writer John Newman describes it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county". Ightham Mote and its gardens are owned by the National Trust and ...
, which was later replaced by a brick manor. More recent studies, including those of Nicolson's son,
Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
, cast doubt on the existence of an earlier stone manor, suggesting instead that the brick house, or perhaps a timber construction of a slightly earlier date, occupying the corner of the orchard nearest the moat, was the earliest house on the site.
Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
is reputed to have stayed at this house in 1305.


Rise, decline, collapse: c.1490–1930

In 1490 the de Berhams sold the manor of Sissinghurst to Thomas Baker of Cranbrook. The Bakers were cloth producers and in the following century, through marriage and careers at court and in the law, Thomas's successors greatly expanded their wealth and their estates in Kent and
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
. In the 1530s Sir John Baker, one of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
's
Privy Councillors A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
, built a new brick gatehouse, the current West Range. In 1554 Sir John's daughter Cecily married Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, creating the earliest connection between the Sackville family and the house. Sir John's son Richard undertook a massive prodigy expansion in the 1560s. The Tower is part of that expansion, and formed the entrance to a very large courtyard house, of which the South Cottage and some walls are the only other remaining fragments. Sir Richard surrounded the mansion with an enclosed deer park and in August 1573 entertained
Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
at Sissinghurst. After the collapse of the Baker family fortunes following the
civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
(1642–1651), the building declined in importance.
Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...
visited in 1752: "yesterday, after twenty mishaps, we got to Sissinghurst for dinner. There is a park in ruins and a house in ten times greater ruins." During the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
, it became a prisoner-of-war camp. The historian
Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is k ...
, then serving in the
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
, was stationed there and recorded "the inconceivable dirtiness of the season, the country and the spot". It was during its use as a camp for French prisoners that the name Sissinghurst Castle was adopted; although it was never a castle, there is debate as to the extent to which the house was a fortified manor. In 2018 an important collection of historical
graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
drawn by some of the 3,000 prisoners was uncovered beneath 20th-century plaster. Around 1800, the estate was purchased by the
Mann family The Mann family ( , ; ) is the most famous German novelists' dynasty. History Originally the Manns were merchants, allegedly already in the 16th century in Nuremberg, documented since 1611 in Parchim, since 1713 in Rostock and since 1775 in ...
and the majority of Sir Richard's
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
house was demolished; the stone and brick were reused in buildings throughout the locality. The castle later became a workhouse for the Cranbrook Union, after which it housed farm labourers. In 1928, the castle was put up for sale for a price of £12,000, but attracted no bids for two years.


Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson: 1930–1968


Vita Sackville-West

Vita Sackville-West, poet, author, and gardener, was born at Knole, about 25 miles from Sissinghurst, on 9 March 1892. The great Elizabethan mansion, home of her ancestors but denied to her through
agnatic primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
, held enormous importance for her throughout her life. Sissinghurst was a substitute for Knole, and she greatly valued its familial connections. In 1913 Sackville-West married Harold Nicolson, a diplomat at the start of his career. Their relationship was unconventional, with both pursuing multiple, mainly same-sex, affairs. After breaking with her lover
Violet Trefusis Violet Trefusis (''née'' Keppel; 6 June 1894 – 29 February 1972) was an English socialite and author. She is chiefly remembered for her lengthy affair with the writer Vita Sackville-West that both women continued after their respective marria ...
in 1921, Sackville-West became increasingly withdrawn. She wrote to her mother that she would like "to live alone in a tower with her books", an ambition she achieved in the tower at Sissinghurst where only her dogs were regularly admitted. From 1946 until a few years before her death, Sackville-West wrote a gardening column for ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', in which, although she never referred directly to Sissinghurst, she discussed a wide array of horticultural issues. In an article, "Some Flowers", she discussed the challenge of writing effectively about flowers: "I discovered this only when I started to do so. Before ... I found myself losing my temper with the nauseating phraseology ... and sickly vocabulary employed." In 1955, in recognition of her achievement at Sissinghurst, "bending some stubborn acres to my will", she was awarded the
Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...
's Veitch Medal. Her biographer
Victoria Glendinning Victoria Glendinning (''née'' Seebohm; born 23 April 1937) is a British biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist. She is an Honorary Vice-President of English PEN and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. She won the James Tait ...
considers Sissinghurst to be Sackville-West's "one magnificent act of creation".


Harold Nicolson

Harold Nicolson, diplomat, author, diarist, and politician, was born in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
on 21 September 1886. Following his father into the diplomatic corps, he served as a junior member of the British delegation at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and returned to Iran as Counsellor in 1925. In 1929 he resigned from the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...
to pursue a career in journalism, editing the ''
Londoner's Diary "Londoner's Diary" is a gossip column in the London ''Evening Standard''. Since 1916 the column has provided readers with witty and mischievous insights into high society; from political scandals and literary feuds to the backstage gossip at fash ...
'' for
Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...
's ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
''. This proved unsuccessful, as did his subsequent political career, which saw him move from Oswald Mosley's New Party to Clement Attlee's Labour Party. Throughout, he maintained a detailed private diary. His entry for 4 April 1930, records, "Vita telephones to say she has seen the ideal house – a place in Kent, near Cranbrook, a sixteenth-century castle".


Building a garden

Sackville-West and Nicolson found Sissinghurst in April 1930, after
Dorothy Wellesley Dorothy Violet Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington ( Ashton; 30 July 1889 – 11 July 1956), styled Lady Gerald Wellesley between 1914 and 1943, was an English author, poet, literary editor and socialite. Background She was born in White Walth ...
, their near neighbour and a former lover of Sackville-West's, saw the estate for sale. They had become increasingly concerned about encroaching development near their property
Long Barn Long Barn, located in the village of Sevenoaks Weald, Kent, is a Grade II* listed building and a Grade II* registered garden. Reputedly the birthplace of William Caxton, the house was later the home of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. ...
, near
Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lon ...
, Kent. Their offer on Sissinghurst was accepted on 6 May and the castle and the farm around it were bought for £12,375, using only Sackville-West's money rather than Nicolson's. The property was in total. The house had no electricity, running water, or drains, and the garden was in disarray. Anne Scott-James notes their "planting inheritance" as "a grove of nut-trees, some apple trees, a
quince The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...
nda tangle of old roses". The physical assets on the site were "four buildings of beautiful mellow brick, part of a moat ndvarious fine walls". Clearing the ground took almost three years, but by 1939 the garden was largely complete, with the exception of the White Garden. Nicolson was responsible for the design and layout, while Sackville-West, at the head of her team of gardeners, undertook the planting.
Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...
, the architectural writer, describes Nicolson's design as "post-Picturesque, a garden not as an imitation of nature but as imitation of a house", and suggests his thinking was much influenced by Lawrence Johnston's garden at Hidcote. Sackville-West's approach was plant-centred, within the constraints of her husband's plan, "profusion, even extravagance and exuberance, within confines of the utmost linear severity". The buildings scattered around the site were converted to become an unconventional home. Part of the long brick gatehouse range from Sir John Baker's construction of c.1533 became the library, or Big Room; the tower gatehouse dating from Richard Baker's rebuilding in 1560–1570 became Sackville-West's sitting room, study, and sanctuary. The Priest's House was home to their sons
Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, ...
and Nigel, and held the family dining room, while the South Cottage housed their bedrooms and Nicolson's writing room. The garden was first opened to the paying public for two days in mid-1938. Thereafter, the opening hours were gradually increased. Despite her love of privacy, Sackville-West came to enjoy greatly her encounters with the visitors, known as "shillingses" on account of the entrance fees they deposited in a bowl at the gate. She described her relationship with them in a 1939 article in the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'': "between them and myself a particular form of courtesy survives, a gardener's courtesy". Nicolson was less welcoming. Sackville-West's ''Observer'' articles raised awareness of the garden; Scott-James records photographic articles in '' Gardening Illustrated,'' ''
Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...
'', and ''
Picture Post ''Picture Post'' was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months. ...
'', and notes consequently that "increasingly paying visitors poured into Sissinghurst, coming in thousands in the course of a summer".


War and after

Nicolson's diary entry for 26 September 1938 records the tense European atmosphere at the time of the
Munich Crisis The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
. "They are making the big room at Sissinghurst gas-proof. I know one who will not be there. He will be in his bed minus gas-mask and with all the windows open." He drove down to Sissinghurst on the day war was declared, encountering an angry woman who shook her fist at him while declaring that the war was the fault of the rich. He found on his arrival at the castle that the Sackville flag had been lowered from the tower. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Sissinghurst saw much of the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
, which was mainly fought over the Weald and the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
. Nicolson's diary entry for 2 September 1940 reads: "a tremendous raid in the morning and the whole upper air buzzes and zooms with the noise of aeroplanes. There are many fights over our sunlight fields". In 1956, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
proposed making a television programme at Sissinghurst. Although Sackville-West was in favour, Nicolson was opposed. "I have a vague prejudice against (a) exposing my intimate affections to the public gaze; (b) indulging in private theatricals." He later withdrew his objections, but Sackville-West declined the BBC's offer in order to please him. In 1959 the American
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
network broadcast a four-way discussion from the dining room at the Priest's House, between Nicolson, the journalist
Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe fo ...
, and the diplomats Chip Bohlen and
Clare Boothe Luce Clare Boothe Luce ( Ann Clare Boothe; March 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987) was an American writer, politician, U.S. ambassador, and public conservative figure. A versatile author, she is best known for her 1936 hit play '' The Women'', which h ...
. Sackville-West intensely disliked the result. Sackville-West died in the first-floor bedroom of the Priest's House on 2 June 1962. Nicolson recorded her death in his diary: "Ursula is with Vita. At about 1.5 she observes that Vita is breathing heavily, and then suddenly is silent. She dies without fear or self-reproach. I pick some of her favourite flowers and lay them on her bed". Her death devastated Nicolson and his last years were not happy. Giving up his Albany apartment in May 1965, he retired to Sissinghurst and thereafter he never stayed anywhere else. He died of a heart attack in his bedroom at the South Cottage on 1 May 1968.


Nigel Nicolson

Nigel Nicolson had always been devoted to his father, and admiring of his more distant mother. Preserving Sissinghurst was "an act of intense filial duty". He had first raised the possibility of giving the house and garden to the National Trust in 1954, but Sackville-West was adamantly opposed. After her death in 1962, which saw the castle pass to him although Benedict was the elder son, he began lengthy negotiations to bring about the handover. The Trust was cautious: it felt that an endowment beyond the Nicolsons' means would be required, and it was also unsure that the garden was of sufficient importance to warrant acceptance. Sir George Taylor, Chairman of the National Trust's Gardens Committee doubted it was "one of the great gardens of England", and had to be persuaded of its merits by Sackville-West's close friend and one-time lover, the gardener
Alvilde Lees-Milne Alvilde Lees-Milne (''née'' Bridges; 13 August 1909 – 1994) was a British gardening and landscape expert. Early life Alvilde was born on 13 August 1909 in London. She was the only child of the Lt.-Gen. Sir (George) Tom Molesworth Bridges, t ...
. Discussions continued until, in April 1967, the castle, garden, and Sissinghurst Farm were finally accepted. Although always intending to transfer Sissinghurst to the Trust, Nigel Nicolson undertook major remodelling at the castle. Unwilling to live in four separate structures – the Big Room, the Tower, the Priest's House, and the South Cottage – he built a substantial family home in the half of the entrance range that stood on the side of the gateway opposite from the library. He died at the castle on 23 September 2004.


National Trust: 1967–present

The National Trust took over the whole of Sissinghurst – its garden, farm, and buildings – in 1967. Since then, the number of visitors has steadily increased.
Anne Scott-James Anne Eleanor Scott-James, Lady Lancaster (5 April 1913 – 13 May 2009) was a British journalist and author. She was one of Britain's first female career journalists, editors and columnists, and latterly author of a series of gardening boo ...
, the author of the first non-Nicolson history of the garden, records 13,200 visitors in 1961, the year of Sackville-West's death, 47,100 in 1967, when the castle passed to the Trust, and 91,584 by 1973. It is now among the Trust's most popular properties, receiving nearly 200,000 visitors in 2017. Although the increased foot traffic has necessitated the replacement of the grass paths with York paving stones, the entry fees generate considerable income which, under the terms of the handover, can only be expended on Sissinghurst. In 2008, Adam Nicolson described the estate as "better funded than it has been since the 16th century". Major works of reconstruction, such as the restoration of the Tower brickwork, and the cataloguing and conservation of the collection of books in the library, have been made possible by the availability of these funds. The property has an iconic status in LGBTQ culture; Adam Nicolson has noted "rivers of lesbians coming through the gate" each spring. The castle was one of the sites chosen in 2017 as a focus for the celebration of the LGBTQ history of Trust buildings. In the same year, the Trust opened the South Cottage to visitors for the first time. the gardens are open to the public daily from 7 March to 31 October.


Adam Nicolson

Adam Nicolson, Nigel's son and the resident donor after his father's death, and his wife
Sarah Raven Sarah Clare Raven (born 1963) is an English gardener, cook and writer. Background Raven was born in Cambridge, the daughter of John Raven, John Earle Raven (d. 1980), a classics University don, don and Senior Tutor at King's College, Cambridge, ...
, have sought to restore a form of traditional Wealden agriculture to Sissinghurst Farm. Their work to reunite the garden with its wider landscape is described in Adam's 2008 book, ''Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History'', which won the
Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...
, and was the subject of a
BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002
documentary, ''Sissinghurst'', in 2009. Their efforts have generated some controversy, reflecting the tension between the demands of traditional agricultural practices and the requirements of a major tourism destination in the 21st century.


Architecture and landscape


Plan


Buildings

The site is a Grade I
registered garden The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...
, and many other structures within the garden are
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s in their own right.


West Range

The West Range forms part of Sir John Baker's original house of the 1530s. Sackville-West and Nicolson enlisted architect A.R. Powys to help convert the stables into a library, known as the Big Room and containing an important literary collection. For the design of the Big Room, they also employed
Philip Tilden Philip Tilden (31 May 1887 – 25 February 1956) was an English architect, active in the early twentieth century, who worked for some of the most prominent members of English society, including Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Lord Beaverb ...
. The room as a whole is a recreation of Knole, "Vita's record of her disinheritance". Powys provided most of the architectural input into the conversion of the buildings at Sissinghurst, including the Priest's House and the South Cottage, as well as occasionally advising on elements of the design of the gardens. The range is of brick and of two storeys, with attics and decorated gables and chimneys. The wing to the south was converted into a family home by Nigel Nicolson. The
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of the Carnocks above the entrance archway was brought to Sissinghurst by Nicolson. The West Range has a Grade I listing.


Tower

The Tower is of brick and was the entrance to the
cour d'honneur A ''cour d'honneur'' (; ; german: Ehrenhof) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block (''corps de logis''), sometimes wit ...
of the 1560s rebuilding. Of four storeys, it has recessed staircase turrets to each side, creating what the architectural historian
Mark Girouard Mark Girouard (7 October 1931 – 16 August 2022) was a British architectural historian. He was an authority on the country house, and Elizabethan and Victorian architecture. Life and career Girouard was born on 7 October 1931. He was educ ...
described as an "extraordinarily slender and elegant" appearance. The courtyard was open on the tower side, its three facades containing seven classical doorways. Girouard notes Horace Walpole's observation of 1752, "perfect and very beautiful". Such an arrangement of a three-sided courtyard with a prominent gatehouse set some way in front became popular from Elizabethan times, similar examples being
Rushton Hall Rushton Hall in Rushton, Northamptonshire, England, was the ancestral home of the Tresham family from 1438, when William Tresham, a veteran of the Battle of Agincourt and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster bought the estate. In the 20th centu ...
and the original
Lanhydrock Lanhydrock ( kw, Lannhedrek, meaning "church enclosure of St Hydrock") is a civil parish centred on a country estate and mansion in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The parish lies south of the town of Bodmin and is bounded to the north by Bodmin par ...
. The Tower was Sackville-West's sanctum; her study was out of bounds to all but her dogs and a small number of guests by invitation. Her writing room is maintained largely as it was at the time of her death. Nigel Nicolson records his discovery in the Tower of his mother's manuscript describing her affair with Violet Trefusis. This went on to form the basis of his book ''Portrait of a Marriage''. The clock, below the Tower parapet, was installed in 1949. A plaque is affixed to the arch of the Tower; the words were chosen by Harold Nicolson: "Here lived V. Sackville-West who made this garden". Nigel Nicolson always felt that the memorial failed to acknowledge his father's contribution. The Tower has a Grade I listing.


Priest's House

The architectural historian John Newman suggests that this building was a "viewing pavilion or lodge". Its name derives from the tradition that it was used to house a Catholic priest, the Baker family having been Catholic adherents. Sackville-West and Nicolson converted the cottage to provide accommodation for their sons, and the family kitchen and dining room. Of red brick and two storeys, Historic England suggests that the building may originally have been attached to Sir Richard Baker's 1560s house but Newman disagrees.


South Cottage

This building formed the southeast corner of the courtyard enclosure buildings. It was restored by Beale & Son, builders from
Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...
, and provided the pair with separate bedrooms, a shared sitting room, and Nicolson's writing room. His diary entry for 20 April 1933 records: "My new wing has been done. The sitting room is lovely ... My bedroom, w.c. and bathroom are divine". Of two storeys in red brick, with an extension dating from the 1930s, South Cottage has a Grade II* listing.


Gardens

Although the estate as a whole is , the gardens themselves occupy only . Anne Scott-James sets out the principles of the design: "a garden of formal structure, of a private and secret nature, truly English in character, and plant dwith romantic profusion". As gardeners and landscapers, both Sackville-West and Nicolson were amateurs. Nicolson largely undertook the design and Sackville-West the planting. The landscape is designed as a series of "garden rooms", each with a different character of colour or theme, the enclosures being high clipped hedges and pink brick walls. The rooms and "doors" are so arranged as to offer glimpses into other parts of the garden. Sackville-West described the overall design: "a combination of long axial walks, usually with terminal points, and the more intimate surprise of small geometrical gardens opening off them, rather as the rooms of an enormous house would open off the corridors". Nicolson considered the garden's success was down to this "succession of privacies: the forecourt, the first arch, the main court, the tower arch, the lawn, the orchard. All a series of escapes from the world, giving the impression of cumulative escape". In the White Garden and along some paths in other gardens, the flower beds were set off from the paths by closely clipped low square hedges of
box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...
. Sackville-West's planting philosophy is summed up in the advice from one of her gardening columns in the ''Observer'': "Cram, cram, cram, every chink and cranny". Gardener Sarah Raven (Adam Nicolson's wife) notes the use of the vertical dimension, as well as horizontal paths, in her planting. Assisted by the number of walls still standing from the Tudor manor, and constructing more of her own, Sackville-West remarked "I see we are going to have heaps of wall space for climbing things." Old roses formed the centrepiece of the planting, and their history appealed to her as much as their appearance did: "there is nothing scrimpy or stingy about them. They have a generosity which is as desirable in plants as in people", and ultimately around 200 varieties were grown at Sissinghurst.


Influences

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...
, long-time gardening partner of
Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...
, was a friend to both Sackville-West and Nicolson and a frequent visitor to Long Barn, and gave advice regarding Sissinghurst. Sackville-West denied that Jekyll's work had an impact on her own designs, but Nigel Nicolson described Lutyens' influence as "pervasive". Fleming and Gore go further, suggesting that the use of groupings of colours "followed Jekyll"; "a purple border, a cottage garden in red, orange and yellow, a walled garden pink ndpurple, a white garden, a herb garden". Scott-James notes however that
herbaceous borders A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants (plants that live for more than two years and are soft-stemmed and non-woody) arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. ...
, "Jekyll's speciality", were much disliked by Sackville-West. Other influencers and friends were the noted plantswoman
Norah Lindsay Norah Mary Madeleine Lindsay (née Bourke) (26 April 1873 – 20 June 1948) was a socialite garden designer who between the World wars became a major influence on garden design and planting in the United Kingdom and on the Continent. Biography ...
, the plant collector
Collingwood Ingram Collingwood "Cherry" Ingram (30 October 1880 – 19 May 1981), was a British ornithologist, plant collector and gardener, who was an authority on Japanese flowering cherries. Personal life Collingwood Ingram was a son of Sir William Ingram and M ...
, who was their neighbour at
Benenden Benenden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald, to the west of Tenterden. In addition to the main village, Iden Green, East End, Dingleden and Standen Street settlem ...
, and Reginald Cooper, one of Nicolson's closest friends, whose earlier garden at
Cothay Manor Cothay Manor is a grade one listed medieval house and gardens, in Stawley, near Wellington, Somerset. The manor grounds consist of almost 40 acres and include cottages, outbuildings, stables, and 12 acres of gardens. The manor is Grade I listed ...
in
Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...
has been described as the "Sissinghurst of the West Country". Sackville-West's considerable knowledge of old roses was deepened by her friendship with
Edward Bunyard Edward Ashdown Bunyard (1878–1939) was an English food writer and apple enthusiast known for his books ''The Anatomy Of Dessert'', ''A Handbook of Hardy Fruits'', and ''The Epicure's Companion''. His favourite apple was 'Orléans Reinette' which h ...
, plantsman, epicure, and the author of ''Old Garden Roses'', who was a frequent visitor. The historian Peter Davey places the garden at the very end of a tradition of Arts and Crafts gardening which by the 1930s, in the face of changes in "taste and economics", had almost come to its close. The concept of "garden rooms" has been dated to the
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
, who included rooms within some homes that opened on one side onto a garden. The horticultural scholar and gardener
Marie-Luise Gothein Marie-Luise Gothein (12 September 1863 – 24 December 1931) was a Prussian scholar, gardener and author. Gothein was born Marie Luise Schröder in Pasym, Passenheim, East Prussia. She wrote the monumental ''History of Garden Art'', regarded as ...
identified such a room at Pliny's Villa Tusci, in her study ''A History of Garden Art''. In the late 19th century, reaction set in against both the
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...
fashion for elaborate
bedding Bedding, also known as bedclothes or bed linen, is the materials laid above the mattress of a bed for hygiene, warmth, protection of the mattress, and decorative effect. Bedding is the removable and washable portion of a human sleeping environm ...
and
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
formality, and the earlier 18th century
landscape gardening Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...
modelled on the paintings of
Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...
and
Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...
. This led in part to a concept of the "garden room" (distinct from the architectural concept of a
sunroom A sunroom, also frequently called a solarium (and sometimes a "Florida room", "garden conservatory", "garden room", "patio room", "sun parlor", "sun porch", "three season room" or "winter garden"), is a room that permits abundant daylight and v ...
as a garden room) as a space out of doors, in which paths, corresponding to halls in a house, lead to enclosed gardens within the garden as a whole, conceived of as rooms. The architect
Hermann Muthesius Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within German ...
described the style which developed into the Arts and Crafts approach in his ' ("
The English House ''The English House'' is a book of design and architectural history written by German architect Hermann Muthesius and first published in German as in 1904. Its three volumes provide a record of the revival of English domestic architecture durin ...
"): "the garden is seen as a continuation of the rooms of the house, almost a series of ... outdoor rooms, each of which is self-contained". A number of pre-Sissinghurst gardeners, including Jekyll and Lawrence Johnston, had designed in this style, and much of their work was known to Sackville-West and Nicolson. This landscaping feature has since become an established one in garden design. Many of the gardening themes developed at Sissinghurst were conceived during Sackville-West's and Nicolson's time at Long Barn: the prominence of roses, the emphasis on "rectilinear perspectives" through axial paths, and an informal, massed planting approach. Jane Brown suggests that "without Long Barn there would have been no Sissinghurst."


Head gardeners

John Vass, appointed head gardener in 1939, left in 1957. Called up to the
RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
in 1941, he had urged that the hedges be maintained, confident that everything else in the garden could be restored after the war. Ronald Platt succeeded him from 1957 to 1959. In 1959
Pamela Schwerdt Pamela Schwerdt was the joint head gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Garden from 1959 to 1990, and a pioneering horticulturalist. Early life and education Pamela Schwerdt was born on 5 April 1931 in Surrey, the granddaughter of Edith Vere Dent, ...
and Sibylle Kreutzberger were appointed as joint replacements. They remained at Sissinghurst until 1991, their contributions, "as much, if not more than Vita's, mak ngit the most admired and popular 20th-century garden in England". In 2006 they were awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's
Victoria Medal of Honour The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society. The award was established in 1897 "in per ...
for their work at Sissinghurst. The pair were followed as head gardener by Sarah Cook, who was succeeded by Alexis Datta. In 2014, Troy Scott Smith, previously head gardener at Bodnant, was appointed – the first male head gardener since the 1950s. He has written of the challenges of maintaining the garden "in the manner of its creator, after they have gone". In 2018 Scott Smith announced plans to extend the flowering season at Sissinghurst beyond the autumn period established by Schwerdt and Kreutzberger, into the winter months, allowing for year-round opening of the garden. The gardening writer and landscape critic Tim Richardson, writing in 2015, described Scott Smith's re-making of the garden: "Sissinghurst, more than any other garden I know, inspires extremes of emotion. There is a feeling that this is Britain's leading garden – and so, arguably, the world's, a status that has proven to be both a great boon and an albatross around its neck". Scott Smith's plans include the reinstatement of every species of rose known to have been grown by Sackville-West. A new history of the garden by Sarah Raven was published in 2014. Sissinghurst continues to exert considerable influence, being described as a "Mecca" and a "place of pilgrimage" for gardeners from around the world and encouraging many imitators.


Top Courtyard and Tower Lawn

Entered through the archway in the West Range, that had been blocked for over 100 years before Sackville-West and Nicolson's arrival, the Top Courtyard is dominated by the Tower. Planted against a new wall constructed on ancient foundations is the Purple Border, a colour palette deliberately chosen by Sackville-West in defiance of Gertrude Jekyll's dictum against massing purple flowers. The gardening writer
Tony Lord Tony Lord is a United Kingdom gardener, photographer and author. In 2005 the Royal Horticultural Society awarded him the Victoria Medal of Honour (V.M.H) for his work as a garden photographer, horticultural consultant and writer. Lord started ou ...
considers it "the courtyard's greatest glory". The height of the Tower attracts considerable wind which necessitates intensive staking of the plants, particularly the taller specimens such as Sackville-West's much-favoured ''
Rosa moyesii ''Rosa moyesii'' is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to western China . Growing to tall by wide, it is a vigorous deciduous shrub, with plentiful matte green leaves and flat red or pink flowers, with yellow cen ...
''. On the opposite side of the Tower is the Tower Lawn, also known as the Lower Courtyard; Nicolson emphasised that "the English lawn is the basis of our garden design". The west–east vista from the Top Courtyard, through the Tower gateway, across the Tower Lawn, and to the statue of Dionysus across the moat, forms one of the most important horizontal axes. It bisects the north–south axis running from the White Garden, across the Tower Lawn, to the Roundel in the Rose Garden. In the southwestern corner of the Tower Lawn is a small garden known as the Sunk Garden. It was created in 1930 as the Lion Pond, but the pond was prone to leaking and was drained in 1939. The site was subsequently considered for planting what became the White Garden, but was ultimately rejected as too confined, shady, and damp. The Trust is considering reinstatement of the pool.


White Garden

"A symphony in subtle shades of white and green", the White Garden is considered the "most renowned" and most influential of all of Sissinghurst's garden rooms. Planned before the war, it was completed in the winter of 1949–1950. Using a palette of white, silver, grey, and green, it has been called "one of Vita and Harold's most beautiful and romantic visions". Sackville-West recorded her original inspiration in a letter to Nicolson dated 12 December 1939: "I have got what I hope will be a lovely scheme for it: all white flowers, with some clumps of very pale pink". The concept of single-colour gardens had enjoyed some popularity at the end of the 19th century, but few such gardens remained when Sissinghurst was designed. Influences for the White Garden include Hidcote and Phyllis Reiss's garden at
Tintinhull Tintinhull is a village and civil parish near Yeovil, south west of Ilchester, in Somerset, England. The village is close to the A303. It is on the Fosse Way. In addition to a school of around 100 pupils, Tintinhull has a church, park, swimmin ...
, both of which Vita had seen. Gertrude Jekyll had discussed the concept, but argued for varying the white palette with the use of blue or yellow plants, advice followed by Reiss. But neither Hidcote nor Tintinhull equals the "full-scale symphony" of the White Garden at Sissinghurst. A more prosaic motivation for the colour scheme was to provide reflected illumination for Sackville-West and Nicolson as they made their way from their bedrooms at the South Cottage to the Priest's House for dinner. The focal point of the garden was originally four almond trees, encased in a canopy of the white rose, ''Rosa mulliganii''. By the 1960s, the weight of the roses had severely weakened the trees, and they were replaced with an iron
arbour Arbor(s) or Arbour(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Arbor'' (installation), a 2013 public artwork in Indianapolis, Indiana, US * Arbor, a counterweight-carrying device found in theater fly systems * ''The Arbor'', a 1980 play by Andr ...
designed by Nigel Nicolson. Beneath the arbour is sited a
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
vase bought in Cairo. A lead statue of a
Vestal Virgin In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty ...
, cast by
Toma Rosandić Toma Rosandić ( sr-cyr, Тома Росандић; baptized as Tomaso Vincenzo, 22 January 1878 – 1 March 1958) was a Serbian and Yugoslav sculptor, architect and fine arts pedagog. Together with Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962), he was the mos ...
from the wooden original which is in the Big Room, presides over the garden. Sackville-West intended that the statue should be enveloped by a weeping pear tree, ''
Pyrus salicifolia ''Pyrus salicifolia'' is a species of pear, native to the Middle East. It is widely grown as an ornamental tree, almost always as a pendulous (or "weeping") cultivar, and is called by various common names, including willow-leaved pear, weeping p ...
'' 'Pendula', and the present tree was planted after her original was destroyed in the Great Storm of 1987. Lord considers the White Garden "the most ambitious and successful of its time, the most entrancing of its type". A possibly apocryphal story records a visit by the colour-loving gardener
Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...
, during which he is supposed to have scattered seeds of brightly coloured nasturtiums across the lawn. Troy Scott Smith, the current head gardener, is undertaking a major research project on the history of the White Garden with the intention of recreating the original planting scheme in its entirety. This project has seen the number of plants being propagated in the Sissinghurst nursery rise from 400 to over 530.


Rose Garden

The Rose Garden was constructed on the site of the old kitchen garden from 1937. It terminates the north–south axis running from the White Garden and concludes with a brick wall, designed by A. R. Powys and known as the Powys Wall, constructed in 1935. Old garden roses, those bred before 1867, formed the heart of the garden's planting. Such roses appealed not only for their lavish appearance, but also for their history. The informal and unstructured massing of the plants was Sackville-West's deliberate choice, and has become one of Sissinghurst's defining features. Roses were supplied by, among others,
Hilda Murrell Hilda Murrell (3 February 1906 – on or before 24 March 1984) was a British rose grower, naturalist, diarist and campaigner against nuclear power and nuclear weapons. She was abducted and found murdered five miles from her home in Shropshire ...
of Edwin Murrell Ltd., notable rose growers in
Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, and the florist
Constance Spry Constance Spry (née Fletcher, previously Marr; 5 December 1886 – 3 January 1960) was a British educator, florist and author in the mid-20th century. Life Constance Fletcher was born in Derby in 1886, eldest child and only daughter of Geor ...
from her home Winkfield Place. In addition to using established suppliers and receiving plants as gifts from friends, Sackville-West sometimes sourced specimens herself. Sarah Raven records Sackville-West digging up the hybrid perpetual rose 'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain' at an old nursery; Anne Scott-James noted that the rose had passed out of commerce and it was Sackville-West who returned it to cultivation. The Rose Garden is divided by the Roundel, constructed of yew hedging by Nicolson and Nigel in 1933. As elsewhere in the garden, the Trust has replaced the original grass paths with stone and brick, to cope with the increases in visitor numbers. Scott-James considered the roses in the Rose Garden "one of the finest collections in the world". The writer Jane Brown describes the Rose Garden, more than any other including the White, as expressing "the essence of Vita's gardening personality, just as her writing-room enshrines her poetic ghost".


Delos and Erechtheum

Delos, between the Priest's House and the courtyard wall, was the one area of the garden that neither Sackville-West nor Nicolson considered a success. She explained its origins in an article in ''Country Life'' in 1942 as being inspired by the terraced ruins covered with wild flowers she had observed on the island of
Delos The island of Delos (; el, Δήλος ; Attic: , Doric: ), near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are ...
. Neither the shade nor the soil, nor its inter-relationships with other parts of the garden, have proved satisfactory, either in the Nicolson's time or subsequently. The
Erechtheum The Erechtheion (latinized as Erechtheum /ɪˈrɛkθiəm, ˌɛrɪkˈθiːəm/; Ancient Greek: Ἐρέχθειον, Greek: Ερέχθειο) or Temple of Athena Polias is an ancient Greek Ionic temple-telesterion on the north side of the Acropolis ...
, named after one of the temples at the
Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...
, is a vine-covered
loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
and was used as a place for eating out of doors.


Cottage and Herb Gardens

The dominating colours in the
Cottage Garden The cottage garden is a distinct style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Ho ...
are hot saturated shades of red, orange, and yellow, a colour scheme that both Sackville-West and Nicolson claimed as their own conception. Lord considers it as much a traditional "cottage garden as
Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
was a milkmaid". Here, as elsewhere, Sackville-West was much influenced by William Robinson, a gardener she greatly admired and who had done much to popularise the concept of the cottage garden. It contains four beds, surrounded by simple paths, with planting in colours that Sackville-West described as those of the sunset. Plants include a range of
dahlias Dahlia (, ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. A member of the Asteraceae (former name: Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its garden relatives thus include the sunflowe ...
, a particular favourite of Nicolson's, and the
red-hot poker ''Kniphofia'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asphodelaceae, first described as a genus in 1794. Species are native to Africa. Common names include tritoma, red hot poker, torch lily and poker plant. Description Herbaceo ...
, which he despised. In a 1937 letter to his wife he observed, "I think the secret of your gardening is simply that you have the courage to abolish ugly or unsuccessful flowers. Except for those beastly red-hot pokers which you have a weakness for, there is not an ugly flower in the whole place." The Herb Garden contains
sage Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...
,
thyme Thyme () is the herb (dried aerial parts) of some members of the genus ''Thymus'' of aromatic perennial evergreen herbs in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are relatives of the oregano genus ''Origanum'', with both plants being mostly indigenou ...
,
hyssop ''Hyssopus officinalis'' or hyssop is a shrub in the Lamiaceae or mint family native to Southern Europe, the Middle East, and the region surrounding the Caspian Sea. Due to its purported properties as an antiseptic, cough reliever, and expecto ...
,
fennel Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...
and an unusual seat built around a
camomile Chamomile (American English) or camomile (British English; see spelling differences) ( or ) is the common name for several plants of the family Asteraceae. Two of the species, ''Matricaria recutita'' and ''Anthemis nobilis'', are commonly us ...
bush. Known to the family as Edward the Confessor's chair, it was constructed by Copper, the Nicolson's chauffeur. Originally laid out in the 1930s, the garden was revitalised by John Vass in the years immediately after the Second World War. The Lion Basin in the centre of the garden was brought back from Turkey in 1914. Most of the over one hundred herbs in the garden are now started in the nurseries and planted out at appropriate times of year.


Walks, the Nuttery, and the Moat

The Lime Walk, also known as the Spring Garden, was the one part of Sissinghurst where Nicolson undertook the planting as well as the design. He had originally intended a single axis running straight from the Rose Garden, through the Cottage Garden, and then through the Nuttery to the moat, but the topography of the site precluded that. Instead, an angled walk was established in the mid-1930s, and substantially replanted in 1945–1962. Sackville-West was critical of the angularity of the design, comparing it to Platform 5 at
Charing Cross station Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover via Ashfo ...
, but treasured it as her husband's creation. "I walked down the Spring Garden and all your little flowers tore and bit at my heart. I do love you so, Hadji. It is quite simple: I do love you so. Just that." The
limes Limes may refer to: * the plural form of lime (disambiguation) * the Latin word for ''limit'' which refers to: ** Limes (Roman Empire) (Latin, singular; plural: ) is a modern term used primarily for the Germanic border defence or delimiting ...
are
pleached Pleaching or plashing is a technique of interweaving living and dead branches through a hedge creating a fence, hedge or lattices. Trees are planted in lines, and the branches are woven together to strengthen and fill any weak spots until the hedg ...
and the dominant plant is ''Euphorbia polychroma'' 'Major'. Nicolson kept meticulous gardening records of his efforts in the Lime Walk from 1947 to the late 1950s and, providing consolation after the end of his parliamentary career, he described the walk as "My Life's Work". The Yew Walk runs parallel to the Tower Lawn. Its narrow width has been problematic, and by the late 1960s the yew hedges were failing. Extensive pruning proved successful in revitalising the avenue. The Nuttery was famed for its carpet of polyanthus. Nicolson called it "the loveliest planting scheme in the whole world". Unlike the other gardens, where flowering plants were placed within flower beds, in the Nuttery and the Orchard plants were allowed to spread across lawns as though they were growing in the wild. By the 1960s, the plants were dying, and attempts to improve the soil did not assist. The primrose carpet was replaced in the 1970s by a mixture of woodland flowers and grasses. The Moat Walk stands on the old bowling green constructed by Sir Richard Baker in the 1560s and his reconstructed moat wall provides the axis. The
azaleas Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and '' Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and Octob ...
were bought with the £100 Heinemann prize Sackville-West received in 1946 for her last published poem, ''The Land''. The
wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...
were a gift from her mother, Lady Sackville, as were the six bronze vases. A bench designed by Lutyens terminates one end of the walk, the other focal point being the statue of Dionysus across the moat. The two arms of the moat that remain from the medieval house are populated by
goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have ...
,
carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
, and golden orfe.


Orchard

The Orchard was an unproductive area of fruit trees when the Nicolsons arrived. The unplanned layout was retained as a contrast to the formality of most of the garden; the fruit trees were paired with climbing roses and the area provided space for the many gifts of plants and trees they received. The rose ''
Rosa filipes ''Rosa filipes'' is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to western China, in Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan. It is a deciduous climbing shrub, growing to 3–5 m, rarely up to 9 m tall. The leaves are ...
'' 'Kiftsgate', a present from Sackville-West's friend and fellow gardener Heather Muir of Kiftsgate Court, is one example. This part of the garden suffered particularly severe losses in the Great Storm of 1987 and much replanting has taken place. The Orchard is the setting for two structures planned by Nigel Nicolson and commissioned in memory of his father: the boathouse and the gazebo. The gazebo, of 1969, is by Francis Pym and has a candlesnuffer roof intended to evoke those of Kentish
oast house An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many re ...
s. The boathouse, of timber construction and with Tuscan
colonnades In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...
, dates from 2002 and is by the local architectural firm Purcell Miller Tritton.


Plants

Tony Lord has noted that Sackville-West and Nicolson intended the gardens at Sissinghurst to be a source of personal enjoyment, rather than to be a public garden displaying rare plants. Aside from Sackville-West's interest in collecting and preserving rare varieties of old roses, the other garden plants were selected primarily for their abilities to look good and grow successfully in their intended planting sites, as opposed to assembling a collection of rare plants from around the world. Later, in the 1960s, Pamela Schwerdt and Sibylle Kreutzberger decided to propagate the most successful flowering plant varieties in order to offer them for sale and make them more easily available to amateur gardeners.


Roses

The collection of rose varieties at Sissinghurst is considered to be extraordinary as well as to encapsulate Sackville-West's approach to gardening. In 1953, John Vass counted 194 rose varieties on the property. A few modern rose varieties are included: the floribunda rose 'Iceberg' is planted in the White Garden, having been supplied by Hilda Murrell to supplement plant losses after a hard winter following Sackville-West's death, and the bright scarlet
climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or any other part of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders), to small boulders. Climbing is done fo ...
hybrid tea 'Allen Chandler' grows on each side of the entrance gate to the Top Courtyard. The focus of Sackville-West's collection was, however, on species roses and old garden varieties. Sackville-West described her love of the old roses, saying that one should "discard the idea that roses must be limited to certain accepted and accustomed colours, and to welcome the less familiar purples and lilacs, and the striped, flaked, mottled variations which recall the old Dutch flower-paintings; to approach them, in fact, with open and unprejudiced eyes, and also with a nose that esteems the true scent of a rose warmed by the sun." She was especially fond of the bourbon roses 'Madame Isaac Péreire' and 'Madame Pierre Oger'.
Graham Stuart Thomas Graham Stuart Thomas (3 April 1909 – 17 April 2003), was an English horticulturist, who is likely best known for his work with garden roses, his restoration and stewardship of over 100 National Trust gardens and for writing 19 books on garde ...
, who helped locate rose varieties for Sissinghurst and advised Sackville-West on the design of the Rose Garden, described 'Madame Isaac Péreire' as " ssibly the most powerfully fragrant of all roses", and 'Madame Pierre Oger' as having a "formal perfection unique among roses". When she first visited the property, Sackville-West came upon a dark red,
double-flowered "Double-flowered" describes varieties of flowers with extra petals, often containing flowers within flowers. The double-flowered trait is often noted alongside the scientific name with the abbreviation ''fl. pl.'' (''flore pleno'', a Latin ablati ...
form of ''
Rosa gallica ''Rosa gallica'', the Gallic rose, French rose, or rose of Provins, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, native to southern and central Europe eastwards to Turkey and the Caucasus. ''Rosa gallica'' was one of the first species of r ...
'' growing wild and apparently dating from earlier plantings there. She eventually planted it in the Orchard, and it is now known as the
cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
'Sissinghurst Castle'. In 1930, even before the deeds to the property had been signed, she planted the
noisette rose Garden roses are predominantly hybrid roses that are grown as ornamental plants in private or public gardens. They are one of the most popular and widely cultivated groups of flowering plants, especially in temperate climates. An enormous number ...
'Madame Alfred Carrière' on the south face of the South Cottage, making it the first rose she would plant in the gardens. In the Rose Garden itself, many roses were planted singly, but two deep pink varieties, the bourbon 'Madame Lauriol de Barny' and the
damask Damask (; ar, دمشق) is a reversible patterned fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin ...
'La Ville de Bruxelles', were planted closely in groups of three and allowed to grow together, providing focal points on the left and right sides, respectively, of the garden. In the White Garden, ''Rosa mulliganii'' is trained over an arbour to provide the centrepiece of the design. Several varieties are trained to climb up trees in the Orchard. These include 'Albéric Barbier', described by Thomas as "a great favourite" among the hybrids of '' Rosa wichuraiana''. Another is 'Félicité et Perpétue', a ''
Rosa sempervirens ''Rosa sempervirens'', the evergreen rose, is a species of wild rose native to the Mediterranean. It is a climbing perennial with very prickly stems. Classification ''Rosa sempervirens'' is most closely related to '' Rosa phoenicia'' and '' ...
'' hybrid that was named for the two daughters of the gardener to the
Duke of Orléans Duke of Orléans (french: Duc d'Orléans) was a French royal title usually granted by the King of France to one of his close relatives (usually a younger brother or son), or otherwise inherited through the male line. First created in 1344 by King ...
in 1827, who were, in turn, named after
Perpetua and Felicity Perpetua and Felicity ( la, Perpetua et Felicitas) were Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son s ...
. A third is the noisette 'Madame Plantier', of which Sackville-West wrote: "I go out and look at her in the moonlight: she gleams, a pear-shaped ghost, contriving to look both matronly and virginal."


Trees and hedges

For the most part, Sackville-West and Nicolson simply kept the large trees that were already growing on the property, to serve as the major specimens. These included numerous ancient oaks that frame many of the individual gardens. The Orchard was made up of apple and pear trees that had been planted long before; Sackville-West and Nicolson decided to keep them and use them as supports for climbing roses. Similarly, the Nuttery consisted entirely of filberts that appear to have been planted around 1900. Some trees were added to the plantings, notably the limes of the Lime Walk. A bed of ''
Magnolia liliiflora ''Magnolia liliiflora'' is a small tree native to southwest China (in Sichuan and Yunnan), but cultivated for centuries elsewhere in China and also Japan. Variously known by many names, including Mulan magnolia, purple magnolia, red magnolia, li ...
'' 'Nigra' is at the southern end of the Lower Courtyard, and some ''
Magnolia grandiflora ''Magnolia grandiflora'', commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is a tree of the family Magnoliaceae native to the Southeastern United States, from Virginia to central Florida, and west to East Texas. Reaching in height, it is a ...
'' are on the walls of the Top Courtyard. A
coral tree ''Erythrina'' is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 130 species, which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. They are trees, with the larger species growing up to in height. The generic ...
is in the Lower Courtyard. Some ''
Malus ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries. The genus is native to the temperate zone of th ...
'' and ''
Prunus ''Prunus'' is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes (among many others) the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. Native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and the p ...
'' previously in the Rose Garden died out, as have ''
Robinia pseudoacacia ''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known in its native territory as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is endemic to a few small areas of the United States, ...
'', ''
Cercidiphyllum japonicum ''Cercidiphyllum japonicum'', known as the katsura (from its Japanese name カツラ, 桂), is a species of flowering tree in the family Cercidiphyllaceae native to China and Japan. It is sometimes called ''caramel tree'' for the light caramel s ...
'', and ''
Koelreuteria paniculata ''Koelreuteria paniculata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to eastern Asia (China and Korea). It was introduced in Europe in 1747, and to America in 1763, and has become a popular landscape tree worldwide. Com ...
'' in the Cottage Garden. A
catalpa ''Catalpa'', commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate and subtropical regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia. Description Most ''Catalpa'' are decidu ...
was planted as a focal point of the Lower Courtyard lawn in 1932, and Nicolson liked to sit beneath it and read, but it died in the 1960s.
Hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...
s play a critical role in defining the "garden rooms".
Yews Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew (''Taxus b ...
,
hornbeams Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbea ...
, and box are each used in this way, clipped into formal square-edged rows of various heights. Yews are also pruned into vertical accents that mimic the shape of
Italian cypress ''Cupressus sempervirens'', the Mediterranean cypress (also known as Italian cypress, Tuscan cypress, Persian cypress, or pencil pine), is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region, in northeast Libya, southern Albania, sou ...
.


Named cultivars

In addition to the 'Sissinghurst Castle' rose, multiple other flowering plants have been grown at Sissinghurst and given names honouring the property or the people associated with it. Sackville-West herself had low enthusiasm for naming plants in this way, and she and Nicolson actually dug up and discarded a rose that was named 'Lady Sackville' after her mother. There are numerous plants that have been given trade names based on the gardens, including ''
Tanacetum parthenium ''Tanacetum parthenium'', known as feverfew, is a flowering plant in the daisy family, Asteraceae. It may be grown as an ornament, and may be identified by its synonyms, ''Chrysanthemum parthenium'' and ''Pyrethrum parthenium''. Description T ...
'' 'Rowallane' which has often been mislabelled as 'Sissinghurst', but there are several that are grown at or were discovered at Sissinghurst and were named to reflect the association. Sackville-West made an exception to her dislike of naming plants in memory of people and purchased ''Viola'' 'Lady Sackville' late in her life, around 1960, planting it in the Delos. A few years after her death, a seedling appeared that seems to have been a spontaneous cross between 'Lady Sackville' and the variety 'Nellie Britton' that was growing alongside it. It had flowers of a rich pink that were larger than those of the parent varieties. The gardeners named it 'Vita'. Sackville-West had also grown a variety of
rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native plant, native to the Mediterranean Region, Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was kn ...
(''Rosmarinus officinalis'') that self-seeded in the Tower steps, and differed from the common variety in having upright rather than trailing stems, and flowers of a deeper shade of blue. It has come to be recognized as a distinct cultivar, and named 'Sissinghurst Blue'. In 1969, a gardener in Kent bred a cultivar of dwarf bearded iris with reddish-purple flowers. He gave a specimen to Sissinghurst, where it was planted in the Purple Border, and named ''Iris'' 'Sissinghurst'. During the 1970s, a pink-flowered specimen of ''
Glandularia ''Glandularia'', common name mock vervain or mock verbena, is a genus of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Verbenaceae. They are native to the Americas. Description These plants, like their relatives the vervains ( ...
'' (''
Verbena ''Verbena'' (), also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas a ...
'') was given to the garden and named 'Sissinghurst'. In 1976, the garden was given a distinctive specimen of ''
Pulmonaria officinalis ''Pulmonaria officinalis'', common names lungwort, common lungwort, Mary's tears or Our Lady's milk drops, is a herbaceous rhizomatous evergreen perennial plant of the genus ''Pulmonaria'', belonging to the family Boraginaceae. Etymology The ge ...
'' that, unlike the species, has large white flowers (along with the white-spotted leaves of the species). It was planted in the White Garden and named 'Sissinghurst White'. Around 1977, the gardeners purchased a collection of seedlings of ''''. They selected the best plant, having larger flowers, and propagated it. This plant was added to the White Garden and named 'White Cloud'. From a planting of ''Penstemon'' 'Evelyn', which is a selection of ''
Penstemon barbatus ''Penstemon barbatus'', known by the common names golden-beard penstemon, and beardlip penstemon, is a flowering plant native to the western United States. In Spanish-speaking New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is called ''varita de San Jose'' ...
'', a specimen was named 'Sissinghurst Pink', although Lord does not consider it to be distinct from 'Evelyn'. In the late 1980s, Pamela Schwerdt and Sibylle Kreutzberger found a specimen of ''
Phlox stolonifera ''Phlox stolonifera'' (creeping phlox or moss phlox) is a species of flowering plant in the family Polemoniaceae. It is a perennial herbaceous plant that is native to the eastern United States. It occurs in woodlands and stream banks in the vicin ...
'' with a remarkably rich purple colour in a florist's shop near the
Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...
. They planted it in the Top Courtyard and named it 'Violet Vere' after Schwerdt's mother, who had been President of the Wild Flower Society and was celebrating her ninetieth birthday.


Footnotes


See also

*
History of gardening The early history of gardening is largely entangled with the history of agriculture, with gardens that were mainly ornamental generally the preserve of the elite until quite recent times. Smaller gardens generally had being a kitchen garden as th ...
(with a list of notable historical gardens)


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

*


External links


Sissinghurst Castle Garden information at the National Trust

Blog written by the current gardeners at Sissinghurst

Photo essay/visual overview with plan

Video tour of Sissinghurst

Vita Sackville-West reads from her poem The Land
{{Authority control Bloomsbury Group locations Buildings and structures in the Borough of Tunbridge Wells Gardens in Kent Grade I listed buildings in Kent Grade I listed parks and gardens in Kent National Trust properties in Kent Rose gardens in Kent