Penshurst Place is often called a Medieval gem; the Great Hall with its open hearth (you can see the smoke hole in the roof) dates from the 1340s, and the gardens have records going back to the fourteenth century, which is fairly unique.
Tall yew hedges divide the gardens into ‘rooms’ and much of the general layout has remained unchanged since Tudor times when the first Elizabeth was on the throne. The planting combines both the old and the new successfully as do the themes for the garden rooms.
The Heraldic garden was a favourite means of showing off your noble connections to your visitors; the creatures on the poles include Sidney family emblems of the bear and ragged staff and the porcupine. Both of these can be found in other places in the gardens, as topiary. The Heraldic garden at Penshurst Place was created in 2009 for 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession as he had many links with Penshurst.
But Penshurst Place gardens are not locked in a single moment of time; whilst some of the planting styles may hark back to former glories other parts of the garden look to the present, like the Jubilee walk. This project was to recreate in a new way the famous double herbaceous border; named the Jubilee border for its official opening in 2012, in honour of the second Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, the renewal of the eighty yard long borders took three years.
One element of historic Penshurst that was retained as part of the design for the new borders was apple trees. These gardens are full of apple and pear trees, and for me that is one of the delights of Penshurst Place. You’ll find some of them with mistletoe growing on them; some trained in free standing goblet shapes, others trained against a wall. There’s a nut plait or nut garden too, with Kentish cobnut trees among others. I love the mixing of productive and ornamental plants in a garden, whatever its size; to me it just feels more alive.
I found some inspired planting in the grey garden. Here you will find silver grey foliage and grey green foliage set of against white flowers in a very restful, almost meditative scheme.
There are landmarks to be found at Penshurst Place; the union flag garden can be seen if you’re flying into Gatwick airport. This is planted with two thousand white and red roses and blue flowered lavender and is best seen from a height. The parterre garden at one end has a raised platform but I must admit my eye was drawn to the parterre hedges in the shape of a pheon or engrailed broad arrow head (another Sidney family emblem) as much as to the union flag.
We visited in early September, so there were no peonies, but there were plenty of roses still blooming. There is a formal rose garden of course, and the Italian garden has its roses boxed in with box hedges.
A very enjoyable visit, however I think sitting next to the pools and reciting some of Sir Phillip Sidney’s poetry was less popular than eating scones in the cafe – some people have no culture!
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