Tucked away on the outskirts of High Wycombe, Sandy Primrose’s garden was a hidden delight, packed with unusual and interesting perennials, shrubs and trees reflecting his extensive travels and plant knowledge. We divided into two groups and while one group enjoyed home-made cakes and tea the other was given a personal tour.
The front garden was a taste of things to come with trees and shrubs such as cotinus and berberis giving large splashes of purple and lime while magenta and mauve geraniums provided additional colour.
One boundary is flanked by 100 foot trees but this challenge was successfully met by a wide shady side border with many eye-catching and unusual foliage plants such as spotty Dotty, persicarias with chevron marked leaves, epimediums and variegated Solomon’s seal.
Moving into the large main garden we were met with some impressive trees including a mulberry, handkerchief tree and cercis forest pansy.
Lots of small paths led off the large main lawn taking you down to more shady borders at the rear of the garden with interesting planting including many large and often variegated hostas, gold berberis, lime euphorbias and colourful geraniums.
Coming back up into more open areas of the garden there were smaller trees with climbing roses, flowering shrubs including a fringe tree, bottlebrush and Romneya tree poppy and lots of perennials.
This was very much a plantsman’s garden and showed what you could achieve in areas that might be seen as a challenge as the garden was surrounded by many large trees. However the recurring use of plants such as hostas, euphorbias and geraniums gave continuity while heavy mulching with light gravel throughout tied the different areas together and brightened the shadier parts.
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