When Vita Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson first feasted their eyes on Sissinghurst in 1930, they both saw beyond the ruin and imagined only the possibilities.
Vita found one lone rose growing among the weeds in the overgrown orchard. It was a R. gallica, lost to cultivation and she rescued it. It is available today as “Sissinghurst Castle.”
From the very beginning they both knew there would be roses – roses everywhere: climbing into the trees in the orchard, billowing over walls and tumbling over archways and arbors. And they quickly went into action to make it happen.
The key to Sissinghurst’s unique style was a juxtaposition. They adapted formal layouts made up of many garden rooms with generous plantings within. The stunning result of this design formula would bring thousands of visitors to their oasis year after year.
The formal layout of the rose garden includes a central yew hedge planted in a circle with four tall yew-lined paths leading away from it. This, they called the Rondel, an old Kentish word used for the shape of the hop-drying floor in the oast-houses. Outside the Rondel, there are low neatly-clipped box hedges separating large beds filled with roses.
It is a very formal layout, softened by the frothy exuberance of old roses. Other plants were also added to the beds including lilies, pinks, peonies and irises. According the Jane Brown, in her book Vita’s Other World, the rose garden was “… Vita’s spiritual home.” Vita, herself, once said she was “…drunk with roses.”
There are many gardens within Sissinghurst, and everywhere a visitor turns, she will see another rose. Vita had a particular penchant for old roses – the damasks, gallicas, moss and musk. She loved the scent, the colors, and the cup-shaped flowers that looked as though plucked from Dutch master paintings.
Both Vita and Harold loved the profusion of the flowers and the urgency of growth in old shrub roses, climbers, ramblers and species roses they brought into their garden, believing they were well suited to the aesthetics of Sissinghurst Castle. And the rose still shines at Sissinghurst.
Vita was drawn to the history of the rose as much as the rose’s quality. She saw romance in old roses. They had a past or had meaningful names like Comtesse du Cayla, who was a close confidante of Louis XVIII or Felicite et Perpetue, two 3rd century African women who were thrown to wild animals for being Christians.
There are hundreds of named roses at Sissinghurst and most are available from rosarians and nursery catalogs all over the world. It would be easy for any rose gardener to enjoy the same roses Vita and Harold enjoyed. A visit to Sissinghurst with pen and notepad in hand will reveal a huge list to ponder over.
References
Most homeowners have probably spent hours looking at the different types of garden seeders. You may have even come across…
When it comes to vehicle lovers, cleaning their cars on a regular basis is essential to maintaining the paint job's…
Gas chainsaws are the perfect tool for a variety of outdoor tasks, including chopping up logs for firewood, clearing brush…
A home can be a daunting project, one that takes some time and energy to maintain. With hard work, determination,…
Today ginger is grown all over tropical and subtropical regions in Asia, in parts of Africa and South America, and…
Onions are one of the most popular vegetables in the world, and growing onions is a snap in the home…