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The Gardens

Formerly known as the Black Garden, as the overhanging trees kept it in shade for most of the year, this rather forgotten place had been filled with struggling herbs. Charlotte Brudenell wished to open this garden with vibrant colours that do not appear in the delicate and pretty long borders, with a particular emphasis on later flowering plants once these borders begin to fade.

Throughout the year, plants of varying shades of yellow, orange and red emerge. Aconites in early Spring, followed by daffodils, hyacinths, beautiful lemon and golden-coloured irises. The wonderful pompoms of orange buddleia are followed by a profusion of flowering plants such as strikingly red crocosmia and the very tall pale yellow verbascum olympicum.

The plants in this area have been carefully chosen to survive the poor soils in this part of the garden.

When Charlotte Brudenell arrived at Deene, she discovered that the topiary intended yew trees planted on the east side of the house were not happy.  With a desire to make a 21st-century interpretation of an older garden, Charlotte researched the layout of the 17th-century chapel and adjoining small parterre. The first design for a Rose Garden concentrated on the patterns from the 1597 ceiling of the Tapestry Room.  The cross shape of the earlier garden was kept, but instead of herbs a profusion of roses was chosen.

The roses were chosen from David Austen for their strong scent and because their names equated with various family and close friends, such as Maid Marion for the late Marian Brudenell, and Rosa Mundi for Godmother Rosamund. The English roses in the centre are Sir John Betjeman and Sophie’s Perpetual, radiating from deep crimson to a softer, paler ballerina pink.  To the East and West are Olivia Rose Austin and the Alnwick Rose and to the North and South, are Lady of Megginch, Gertrude Jekyll, Maid Marion and Queen Anne. In the four corners are Rose Mundi, a suitably Medieval cultivar with its striped petals.

The most striking feature of the gardens at Deene Park is the box hedge parterre designed by David Hicks and planted out in the early 1990’s. The planting consists of clipped lavender, perennials such as Geraniums, Salvias, Iris, Nepeta, and spring bulbs including Hyacinths & Tulips.

A quirky feature of the Parterre, and not in the original design, are four topiary teapots. Why teapots? Because tea was the late Edmund Brudenell’s favourite drink.

The white garden is a secluded spot dedicated to the memory of Robert Brudenell’s parents.

Verbascums, white wild corn cockle and sterile white willow herb create quite a mix of textures and forms in the beds. The Philadelphus on the entrance to this garden provides a scent which carries beautifully on even the lightest of breezes, filling the air with delicate Jasmine Tea hues. The head of the Echinops adds an almost alien look to the highest parts of the white garden borders and are a mecca for our bee population.

The red brick walls of the old kitchen gardens are the oldest feature of the gardens, having been built in the early 18th century. Although no longer used to raise fruit and vegetables, its outer wall provides the backdrop for the long-mixed borders filled with scented Philadelphus, roses and other shrubs, masses of herbaceous plants and spring bulbs. The walls themselves are clothed with climbing roses to show them off beautifully.

The long borders are separated by a circular hedged garden dedicated to the four seasons statues contained within. The focal point in this garden is a large, central, stone urn, planted with tender perennials for summer. At the far end of the long borders is the stone summerhouse built by the 7th Earl of Cardigan, who together with his wife Adeline, used the building to entertain their respective friends.