White rabbits, topiary, flowers and wonderful scenic views make this garden a magical experience.
One of the locations for the 2010 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ film, Antony House in Cornwall is almost in Devon, being only a few miles from the Torpoint ferry which crosses the river Tamar. Antony House is a National Trust garden tucked into a peninsula corner of Cornwall; a hidden gem.
The grounds at Antony House were landscaped by Humphry Repton (1752-1818) round about 1800. Repton liked a soft transition of house to garden; he designed lush woodland planting at Antony House and also a parterre. A parterre is a formal garden of beds and paths, generally laid out in a symmetrical geometric pattern.Low hedges, often of Box (Buxus sempervirens) are frequently used to edge the beds.
Antony House gardens appear in one of Repton’s famous Red Books of garden designs. The sketches in his design books showed the before view or existing landscape and after view, or planned garden landscape.
The gardens were used as a set for the Tim Burton ‘Alice in Wonderland’ film – but we didn’t see any white rabbits or red queens on our visit.
However, we did see some beautiful daylilies – Hemerocallis – as Antony House holds one of the National Plant Collections for this plant species. Although each bloom only lasts a day, each stem has many flowers so it is a delightful plant to have in the border. Daylilies are fairly tolerant of most soil types although prefer slightly acidic (a pH of less than 7) and can be grown on Britain, New Zealand and most of United States.
Hemerocallis do like their fair share of sun; about half a day’s worth but as hardy perennials will repay you with a long flowering season year on year with little effort on your part. In New Zealand they may flower for six months from October to April; in Britain you can expect more like three months of flowers from May through to late July.
Whilst we’re not quite a Repton or a white rabbit, Plews can design you a magical garden, and help resolve your problem with rabbits and other unwelcome visitors.
