Garden Photo of the Day

GPOD on the Road: Smallhythe Place

Visiting a beautiful English cottage garden

By GPOD Contributor
close up of pink climbing roses

Cindy Strickland has shared on the GPOD before (Gardening for a Friend), and today she’s taking us along to visit a beautiful English garden.

Smallhythe Place in Southeast England was once owned by Dame Alice Ellen Terry, a famous English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The property includes an early 16th-century house and gardens.

I thought it was worth a visit to Smallhythe, since I was in the area to see the gardens at Sissinghurst and at Great Dixter. I was not disappointed!

I wanted to share a few photos taken on May 28, 2023. They are mainly of the roses close to the house and of the cottage-style rose garden. Many of the rose plants were just starting to bloom. In one of the photos, you may be able to see how the canes were wired to the house in places.

In the enclosed cottage garden, the grass paths divide the garden into four rectangular areas. The brick path went all the way around the outer edges. The edges of the planted areas looked sharply defined and freshly dug. I am fond of spade-edged beds in my gardens. The allium was abundant and the roses had some open flowers but many unopened buds. Flawless purple lupins grew just outside of the cottage garden.

It was a beautiful and relaxing place to visit!

peach and purple flowers growing around a old english house
Beautiful peach roses have been trained up the house.

close up of roses growing around a window
Window with roses growing around it

close up of pink climbing roses
Look closely and you can see where the canes are attached to the wall. Climbing roses need careful training to control their growth.

english cottage garden with lots of alliums
The white alliums in the cottage garden are in peak bloom.

perfectly edged grass path in the garden
A long path of grass is kept neat by perfect edging.

close up of blue flowers
Italian bugloss (Anchusa azurea, Zones 3–8)

close up of red blue and white flowers
A red rose with bugloss and allium behind it

wide view of cottage garden with lots of flowers and grass paths
This view of the cottage garden shows the paths and hedges.

brick path cutting through garden
The brick path

close up of large purple lupins
Lupins (Lupinus polyphyllus, Zones 3–7) outside of the cottage garden

 

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Comments

  1. [email protected] 10/02/2023

    Luv it, beautiful!

    1. User avater
      cynthia2020 10/02/2023

      Thank you - my pleasure to share their gardening work!

  2. Tz_Garden 10/02/2023

    The Lupins! This is a beautiful garden.

    1. User avater
      cynthia2020 10/02/2023

      Tz - I agree!

  3. User avater
    treasuresmom 10/02/2023

    So pretty!

    1. User avater
      cynthia2020 10/02/2023

      Hi, Treasuresmom - thanks for the response!

  4. btucker9675 10/02/2023

    What a perfectly lovely garden. The blue of that Italian bugloss is almost unbelievable - stunning! Thanks for sharing this wonderful place!

    1. User avater
      cynthia2020 10/03/2023

      Hi, BT. Oh, I did love that bugloss! Thank you for your comments! At home, I tried borage this year - for some blue. Cardinals ended up eating all the seeds.

  5. User avater
    simplesue 10/03/2023

    Oh the kind of place dreams are made of! Beautiful and magical- thanks for sharing!

  6. User avater
    cynthia2020 10/03/2023

    Sue - regarding beautiful and magical - I agree! Am lucky my husband was willing and able to drive in the UK so we could get to some properties like this one.

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