“Elizabeth Balmforth’s Seasonal Planting Combinations”

Event date: December 2014
Speaker: Elizabeth Balmforth
Write-up by Marie Robson

Elizabeth, former curator at RHS Harlow Carr, delighted us with a pictorial tour through seasonal planting combinations at Mount St John, Felixkirk, 6 miles outside Thirsk. Situated on a hill at 550 feet above sea level and presenting its own gardening challenges, Mount St John was originally founded by William Percy (Dukes of Northumberland). Originally the location of a Preceptory built for the Order of St John of Jerusalem in the 11th century, the monks residing there offered respite to pilgrims and crusaders. In 1720 the buildings were pulled down and a new Georgian manor house with stables built. Still known as Mount St John, it is now a grade II listed building. Lizzie says the house and gardens have a very special, peaceful atmosphere and are a contrast of modern and romantic or Georgian influenced planting design.

Lizzie, wed to a Yorkshireman, is a self confessed perennials addict, with horticulture a given due to a family run nursery in Stone, Staffordshire. Raised in the Peak District National Park she was inspired by the meadows surrounding her childhood home, which influences her approach.

After the owners of Mount St John were inspired by his Laurent Perrier garden design at Chelsea, the current terrace garden was designed in 2001 by Tom Stuart Smith and was built during the following 6 years. Lizzie continues to expand the garden using his original planting ideas, one of her current projects being the Valley Garden. The valley sides remain unplanted and require a lot of work. The valley is planted with ferns, epimediums and ground cover plants along with Primula florindae and Meconopsis x sheldonii. Epimediums are excellent for dry shade and grow fantastically at Mount St Johns. Lots of Asiatic and Mediterranean species are currently being added. The Epimediums in The Meadow are cut back to show off their flowers before the leaves hide them, but Lizzie loves the leaves more than the flowers. Interesting to learn about the use of epimediums as an original form of Viagra! The pond in the valley hosts a marginal plant, Aponogeton distachyos (water hawthorn invasive but not frost hardy, so fine in the UK). It tastes of marzipan with a chilli aftertaste the Australians crop it and sell it as sweets.

As well as the terrace and valley gardens a scented walk includes shrubs mixed with herbaceous perennials: Syringa ‘Correlata’ and lime green Euphorbia, specimen Magnolias and crab apple trees. The Gravel Garden is designed to marry with the landscape and wheat fields beyond, using Salvias, yellow foxgloves, Eremurus x isabellinus ‘Cleopatra’ and Achillea grandifolia. The eremurus seed heads are left and for winter flower arrangements in the House and for their ‘Provenance Inns’, which includes Carpenter’s Ams in Felixkirk village. The productive vegetable garden, run by kitchen gardener Anna, also supplies the Provenance Inns, with fresh produce delivered to the chefs daily and four dahlia beds for cut flowers. As well as growing 14 types of tomato, some heritage fruit and vegetables are grown for the Henry Doubleday Association. 25 varieties of apple on site supply Ampleforth for cider production. A special blend of poultry manure and mushroom compost is used to enrich the soil; Lizzie had thought about using horse manure, but is wary of the introduction of unwanted plant species.

Other plant combinations used at Mount St John include sensitive ferns (Onoclea sensibilis – amazing autumn colour) with ornamental buttercup, Cornus kousa (A particular favourite is ‘Venus’ with pink wings and a cream bract) with Peonies (Saunders hybrids, and including the pink tree peony Duchess of Marlborough), Cirsium rivulare ‘Trevor’s Blue Wonder’ with Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’, Persicaria with Echinacea purpurea ‘Rubinglow’, Lilium martagon with Eupatorium, Vitis coignetiae with Hydrangea quercifolia, Cobaea scandens with purple Verbena. Phlomis is another favourite, attracting lots of finches. Eryngiums are also used, including ‘Miss Willmot’s Ghost’ – Miss Willmot is the original ‘guerrilla gardener’ according to Lizzie, who also dreams about scattering seed along motorway embankments on her travels!

Alliums, iris and beach are among the owner’s favourites and are found throughout the gardens. Other specials for Lizzie include Clerodendrum: scented purple flowers smelling of peanut butter, pink and petrol blue fruits with some specimens 8 foot tall – she declares it a ‘must have’ for everyone’s garden. Lizzie loves Persicaria – a great ‘fringe’ plant, and one of her favourite Clematis is viticella ‘Alba Luxuians’. She planning to add lots of Gillenia trifoliata, a high value perennial that marries with anything (I’m lucky to have a Gillenia in my garden and growing from seed that I saved this year, so look out for plants at the meets next year!) Cercidiphyllum japonicum – Katsura or ‘Toffee Apple tree’, the leaves smelling of cinder toffee in the autumn, is another favourite and lots will be planted in the new Katsura garden. Katsura means ‘unachievable task’ or ‘man in the moon’.

The lawns at Mount St John are also interesting. They’re cut in patterns that change regularly to amuse themselves and visitors. They do swirls and patterns; a tartan scheme was used for the year of the Commonwealth Games – they hired a greenkeeper from Charlton Athletic for this who used a special organic fertiliser called ‘Caviar’ – yummy!

I think we were all ‘wowed’ by Lizzie’s plant knowledge, these beautiful gardens and their development. Sadly, Mount St Johns is limited in the number of visits they have per year and are fully booked until 2016 – but fear not plantaholics; our redoubtable Maggie Duguid is on the case, and I for one can’t wait to see it!