Far left (next to big photo of Simon)- A King protea (Protea cynaroides) flowering at Coleton Fishacre. All other photos show Coleton.
bradley manor also has a donor family and they have their own gardener. the National trust doesn’t actually do the garden here but we are always available with any advice the family may want with horticultural matters. Which of your four properties takes up most of your time at the moment? greenway, as there is most to do here. It is a really exciting garden and it is looking stunning but we can always make it even better. We have done a lot of work on paths and infrastructure and now we are concentrating on the planting. greenway has a reputation as one of the best spring gardens with displays of rhododendrons, camellias and magnolias. I want to up the colour for the rest of the year. so we have started planting acers and trees for autumn colour. We are also getting the vegetable garden up and running again. Agatha Christie’s son in law, Anthony, ran his nursery from the walled garden. We have some very rare and lovely plants and we’d like visitors to be able to take a little bit of greenway away with them. Which is more visited - Greenway or Coleton? It is very close between the two but interestingly, they are famous for different reasons. In
Simon enjoying canoeing on the River Dart with his dog.
Coleton is unique. Greenway, we almost describe as being on the edge of wildness.
gardening terms, Coleton is one of the National trust members’ favourite gardens; everybody has heard of it and its standard of horticulture is incredible. I have never seen a better garden by the National trust - it is just an amazing combination - the gardens are beautiful with stunning views and then there is the sea. It also has an unusual rare micro climate where we can grow special plants like the protea form south Africa which is flowering now. Coleton is unique. greenway, we almost describe as being on the edge of wildness. It also has the Agatha Christie connection, which is a strong story in itself as well as 400 years of plant collections, historic buildings, walled garden, dahlia collection and one of the longest peach houses in england.
What is your favourite National Trust garden excluding your own? polesden Lacey in surrey has always been a really special garden for me. It has parkland
with stunning views over the North Downs to distant views over London and beyond. the gardens are of a very high standard; it has the longest double herbaceous borders and a very extravagant rose garden as well as a kitchen garden and it even has chickens. I also love the atmosphere; the lady who owned it, mrs greville was the ultimate party giver, the hostess with the mostest in the 1920’s. royal visitors from around the world would head down to poleden Lacey rather than buckingham palace. Visitors included Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill. It was where King george VI had his honeymoon and where edward VII took his mistresses. What I love most is that the spirit of that time of extravagance and flamboyance can still be felt in the gardens.
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