Sissinghurst Castle

Sissinghurst Castle and the White Garden!

I have a degree in Landscape Design, Horticulture.  Which means I studied plants more than architecture.  I fell in love with both Japanese and English gardens – the serenity of the Japanese gardens appealed to me, but the riotous wonder of an English garden called to my soul.

One of my favorite gardens is the White Garden at Sissinghurst Castle.  It’s magical. I would look at the pictures and dream. One year I was able to visit the garden and it was all that I had hoped for.  I visited in May, not at its peak, which is June, but it was still splendid.

Sissinghurst Castle was home to Vita Sackville-West, an English writer and poet, and her husband, Harold Nicolson, a diplomat

HISTORY

Sissinghurst Castle has an interesting history.  The castle started out as a Saxon pig farm, becoming a prison in 1756.

In 1796 the Mann-Cornwallis family leased the land to use as a home for the poor.  They farmed the land until 1855 when the lease expired. From 1855-1930’s it was used in a manner called Victorian high farming.

Vita and Harold bought the land in 1930.  At that time the land was mostly vegetable gardens, orchards, and fields of grains and hops.

During World War ll part of the farm was used as a dairy farm – with Vita involved with a volunteer group helping with the war effort.  It wasn’t until the late 1930s did some of the themed gardens take shape and were opened to the public.

Vita died in 1962 and the gardens were put into the National Trust in 1967.

GARDENS

There are several themed gardens at Sissinghurst Castle.  The White Garden being the most famous of them.

Rose Garden

-from the National Trust, “Vita loved old roses and at Sissinghurst, she finally had the space to indulge in her passion. Her vision was for ‘a tumble of Roses and Honeysuckle, Figs and Vines’. She and Harold made the rose garden in what had once been a kitchen garden and this she filled lavishly with all her favorite old roses. Gallicas, Albas, Damasks, and Centifolias. Bourbons, species roses, climbers, ramblers and more. For Vita, it was the romance of old roses that appealed to her; their colors, their scent, and their history. She wrote about how they were like pieces of embroidery and like a tapestry they wove their way into every space at Sissinghurst until there were about 200 different ones growing in the garden.”

White Garden

– the most famous of them all. Also called a moon garden, the White Garden was at its best in June and at night.  This was the crown of Vita’s gardens. Whites, greys, and greens were the only colors allowed.  Harold created the structure and Vita filled it full with a wondrous collection that to this day delights gardeners. An in-depth article can be found at England’s Landscape Magazine. Including more history and a wonderful detailing of the plants and thoughts that went into it.  Want to try your hand at a white garden? Here is a list of 20 Plants that work in the US.

Cottage Garden

– when one thinks of a traditional English cottage garden – the flowers that come to mind are a profusion of pinks, whites, blues, and soft purples.  Not in Vita’s cottage garden. Here the colors are hot, hot hot. Reds, oranges, and yellows abound.

Herb Garden

– As Adam Nicolson, Vita and Harold’s grandson says: ‘Only the beautiful, the pungent and the elegant are allowed here’. Filled with over 100 different herbs that are grown onsite.

Nuttery 

-this is where Vita and Harold fell in love with Sissinghurst and decided to buy it.  A shady retreat which welcomes birds along with visitors – the nuts are Kentish cobnuts, a variety of hazelnuts.

The Lime Walk

– Also called the Spring Garden was designed and planted by Harold, who considered it his life’s work.  The limes in the walk are pleached. What is pleached? According to Wikipedia – “Pleaching or plashing is a technique of interweaving living and dead branches through a hedge for stock control. Trees are planted in lines, the branches are woven together to strengthen and fill any weak spots until the hedge thickens. … Pleach also means weaving of thin, whippy stems of trees to form a basketry effect.”  want to try pleaching yourself?  Gendenista has a great 101 lesson for beginnings

Delos

– a failed attempt in re-creating the splendor of Greece. 

The Moat Walk

– here is one of the most beautiful white wisteria vines I have ever seen. I have a wonderful picture, but unfortunately, it was taken 20 years ago and its quality is not up to uploading.  It trails along the side where the wall still exists. This garden also contains a Lutyens bench.

The Orchard

–  from the National Trust’s website; “Vita and Harold always intended the Orchard to be half garden, half wilderness. Roses were planted against the boughs of old apple trees, with winding paths mown in long grasses. Bees make use of the apple blossom and make honey in the hives. The gazebo was built in 1969 in memory of Harold Nicolson.”

The Purple Border

– filled with blues, lavenders, purples blooms, Vita planted this garden as a thumbing of the nose, if you will, to Gertrude Jekyll.  Gertrude felt that one should not mass purple flowers together. I have to go with Vita on this one – I love purple flowers.

More information can be found at the following resources:

• Wikipedia – includes a map of the gardens
• National Trust – their page on Sissinghurst Castle
• Wikipedia – page on Vita Sackville-West

I do hope you enjoyed this posting on Sissinghurst Castle – and if you ever have a chance to visit – I encourage you to take it!

Till next time!

Becky