πSpring 2010 Cornish Gardener 23

A garden with personality

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OHN Betjeman called it ‘a perfect piece of England’, others said it

was (and is) a garden with personality.

The garden in question, Moyclare near Liskeard has been filmed, televised, written about and visited since it was first made in the early twenties.

The creation of Moira and Louis Reid from Ireland, it began as an open field.

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he couple arrived with boxes and packages from Moira’s County

Clare home, whose damp and warm climate mirrors that of Cornwall. While builders dug the foundations for the house, the Reids began the garden. Moira became a close friend of the garden writer Margery Fish, exchanging plant

material and letters with her, and over the years many keen gardeners and garden writers visited. Among them was Christopher Lloyd, Beverly Nichols, Charles Nelson and Topline Broadhurst who filmed the garden many times for his television programme. And, of course, John Betjeman, although Moira was annoyed with his ‘English’ comment, saying the garden was Irish. Over the years Moira crammed the garden with thousands of plants from all over the world, extending and expanding. After her death the garden was inherited by Moira’s niece Elizabeth Henslowe who, with her husband Philip, has been carrying out a rejuvenation programme, filling in gaps where original planting has grown old and failed and adding new. She has had to come to terms with her aunt’s habit of cramming plants in everywhere, or ‘nurture over nature’ as she call it but has succeeded in bringing this now 80 year old garden back to life.

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oday it is as fascinating as ever, with plants from every continent and

more than 50 species of birds and many butterflies and moths enjoying the atmosphere.

Among the plants are many which were named for Moira, including Camellia williamsii Moira Reid, grown from seed given to her by J C Williams of Caerhays Castle, and Astrantia major Moira Reid.

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iscoveries are still being made, among them camellias and yet to be

named perennials.There are even some fairly unusual weeds.

The garden still attracts a great deal of attention and the latest visitors included a team from the Sunday Times who are featuring Moyclare in a series on undiscovered and lesser known gardens. The Henslowes are to open their garden for charity for the National Gardens Scheme on May 3 and they also open the garden at weekends and bank holiday Mondays in April, May and June.

ELIZABETH Henslowe with Camellia williamsii Moira Reid, grown from seed given to her aunt by J C Williams of Caerhays Castle

MOYCLARE House, built by Louis and Moira Reid at Lodge Hill, Liskeard Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32