Mallorca Eden for garden lovers
Mallorca is famous for the magnificent gardens hidden behind the walls of its country estates. Zoe Dare Hall reveals the best properties and locations for green-fingered buyers
Within the garden' s walls is the stylish, airy main residence, which has six bedrooms. There is an adjoining seven-bedroom guest house overlooking the pool and a separate old shoemaker' s cottage. `Now that the child- ren have grown up, the house really is too big for us oldies to rattle around in on our own,' M rs O' Regan explains. They may not have had Lord Latymer' s
touch, but there are some other spectacular examples of Mediterranean gardens for sale on Mallorca. Also in Artà, Savills are selling a beautifully restored finca set in 34 acres with fountains, pergolas and a large pool overlooking the valley, for £3.518 million. `You really can have an instant garden
here,' says Jan Pratt, director of property- search agency Shortcuts. `Within six months, we had turned the rubble wasteland next to our home in Calvià into a lush jungle. She's marketing five-bedroom Can Morey, a palm-dotted paradise in the hills above Palma, for £1.175 million. `Calvià , in the south-west, or Pollensa,
in the north, are ideal for gardeners, as you' re a short drive from the coast but pro- tected from the sea spray,' s he advises. By contrast, the fierce Mallorcan sun isn' t
FOR SALE €4.04m
S
Artà Son Solivella was once home to horticulturalist Hugo Latymer. Engel & Völkers (00 34 971 829 339;
www.engelvoelkers.com)
HORTLY after waking in her Mallorcan farmhouse, Jane O' Regan indulges in her favourite morning ritual. She unfolds the 6ft solid
wooden shutters, releases the brass catches on the glass doors and throws open the huge, 100-year-old external slatted shutters to reveal one of the most beautiful gardens on the island. Two giant plane trees cast welcome shade over the terrace, an enormous umbrella pine stands next to an orchard of ancient olive and citrus trees, and even on the hottest summer day, the constant rust- ling of the leaves throughout the two-acre walled garden provides a pleasant breeze. Mrs O' Regan' s house, Son Solivellas, in
Artà, has one of Mallorca' s greatest gar- dens, and that' s saying something on an island that has a reputation for its greenery. Son Solivellas' s previous owner was Hugo Latymer, a passionate horticulturalist and author of The Mediterranean Gardener, a guide to cultivating everything from small patios to whole hillsides in sun-drenched Mallorca. For more than 20 years, Lord Latymer cultivated plants in his nursery on the island and used them to turn his garden into a tropical paradise. `The garden is divided into ª roomsº , including a secret area for Lord Latymer' s
78 Country Life International, Summer 2011
unusual plants,' says Mrs O' Regan, who lives in Oxford with her husband, Mike, and bought Son Solivellas as a holiday home 10 years ago. `Lady Latymer designed the large swimming pool, which has a semi- circle of wide steps leading into the water and a Moroccan-style pool house. It was featured in the book Spectacular Pools.' After a decade of family holidays in Son
Solivellas, Mr and Mrs O' Regan are now looking to sell this horticulturalist' s dream for £4.04 million through Engel & Völkers.
a problem for gardeners, as native varieties of plants and trees naturally know how to fend best in the heat. `Cacti rockeries and fruit orchards work well,' says Amanda Goddard from Engel & Völkers in Pollensa. `Orange, lemon, almond and olive trees bring edible or just visual delights all year round, and gardens with huge lavender and rosemary bushes really last. Bougainvilleas and geraniums are jewels in a dry land- scape during the hot months and mimosa provides colourful shade.' However, `the Mallorquìns regard garden-
ing as something you do for practicality, not for ornamentation, and grass is for golf courses, not gardens, as it drinks a criminal amount of water,' a dds Mrs Goddard.
FOR SALE €3.518m
Artà This beautifully restored finca comes with 34 acres of gardens. Savills (020± 7016 3740; www.
savills.co.uk/ abroad)
www.countrylife.co.uk/international
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