Outside interests

Many people would not consider a visit to a garden in the winter, but Mervyn Hancock looks at Hidcote in Gloucestershire, which is opening at weekends until Christmas

A gardener's work is never done, it seems, and while most of us allow the soil to rest in the months leading up to Christmas, staff at National Trust properties around the region are busy keeping things ticking over in preparation for spring.

And this year, for the first time, the trust is opening up the beautiful gardens at Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire so that members and other visitors can see exactly what happens during what many consider to be the closed season.

Head gardener Glynn Jones has been looking after the grounds for nine years and told me: "Although you won't find many flowers at this time of the year, there are still plenty of shrubs and trees to look at. But the great joy of visiting a garden during the run-up to Christmas is that you get to see its perspective – the ingenious way that it is designed and laid out.

"Gardening is an all-year-round job, and backing up the National Trust team here we are lucky to have a faithful band of volunteers who put in hundreds of hours of work to keep everything in pristine condition.

"We decided to open up for the first time this winter, each Saturday and Sunday between 11am and 3pm, so that it would give families the chance to get out into the fresh air and enjoy a different aspect of Hidcote. We are opening the restaurant so they can have a bowl of soup or cup of tea, and the shop will also be open.

"There will also be a team of stewards on hand to explain how the garden works."

The National Trust acquired Hidcote Manor Garden in 1948 during a pretty grim time, when there were few paying visitors and little income to safeguard the property's future or carry out a full restoration programme.

The creator of Hidcote was a highly educated American, called Lawrence Johnston, born in Paris into a wealthy Baltimore stockbroking family.

In 1907, his mother, Gertrude Winthrop, acquired the Gloucestershire estate, and her son immediately became interested in making a garden out of fields around the manor house.

By 1910, he had begun to lay out key features such as the bathing pool garden, and in 10 years the property really began to take shape.

First, the small, formal "old English" garden near the house, which incorporated existing walls and a magnificent Cedar of Lebanon, was laid out between 1907 and 1914, then the Stilt Garden, the Pavilions and Mrs Winthrop's Garden.

He then expanded the garden south along the Long Walk and into Westonbirt, with earlier areas being simplified. Johnston continued to add informal areas and new plants until World War II.

By the 1920s – influenced by great landscapers like Gertrude Jekyll – he employed 12 full-time gardeners, while his passion for plants also led him to sponsor plant-hunters and make expeditions himself to claim new discoveries.

As a result of these expeditions, many new plants were brought to the UK, a lot of which now bear the Hidcote name.

Indeed, it is the planting at Hidcote which fundamentally elevates and differentiates it from other contemporary "architectural gardens".

The National Trust's ongoing vision for Hidcote is to recreate the property as one of the most influential and diverse gardens in the country. Research has demonstrated that Hidcote Manor Garden was at its peak during the 1930s, and future work will be completed within this context.

Where there is a lack of archive material, the trust's approach will be to restore these features in the spirit and style of Lawrence Johnston. Planting will demonstrate a high degree of flair, plantsmanship and artistry.

Hidcote Manor Garden, Hidcote Bartrim, near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, GL55 6LR. Tel: 01386 438333. Admission prices: National Trust members free, adults £4.