My favourite architect by a country Swedish mile is Edwin Lutyens . Often described as a genius , he is most glorify for his Surrey state business firm , war commemoration and his masterplan for Imperial New Delhi .
Castle Drogo in Devon is one of Lutyen ’s lesser known and utmost flung masterpieces , and one I could never tire of visiting . The fortress - like castle , the last to be built in England , in many manner meditate the harsh barbarism of the moor fringe on which it pose . It appears much older than its years , completed as it was for the newly rich Julius Drewe in 1930 . From the outside one might think a cramped and uncomfortable house , but inside it offered the Drewes all the modern yardbird of the period , include electricity , lift and shower tub . Lutyen ’s experimentation with asphalt , at the clip a new stuff for waterproof categorical roofs , was less successful . By 2012 the castlewas leak like a sieve . As a termination the National Trust have embark on a major restoration , which will take five years to discharge . The work involves the remotion and replacement of one C of tonnes of light hoary Dartmoor granite via a complex scaffold .
Scaffolding , imported from Norway , can not come into contact with the Grade 1 listed edifice . It has to withstand 125 miles per hour winds as well as the weight of the stone .
The castle is grimly magnificent . However for me the gardens are Drogo ’s greater draw . The Drewe family wanted a fashionably conventional garden but the grounds offered only debunk stony slopes with piffling in the way of shelter . Having planted a tax shelter belt of beech trees , Lutyens prepare a long garden with a croquet lawn at the top , leading through an informal area of exotic shrubs and tree diagram , terminating with a checker - gameboard rose garden .
search down towards the rosaceous garden
As with all Lutyen ’s work the garden is perfect in a good sense that very few other gardens are . Lutyens stipulated every detail of the social structure and buy the Dartmoor landscape into the design using long prospect . In this instance he did not work with Gertrude Jekyll , but a Kent based horticulturist and graphic designer called George Dillistone . Sir Edwin Lutyens provided the rarefied scale and architectural structure that his clients want , include winding patio walks in convention inspired by his recent employment in India . Dillistone took this formality and soften it with luscious planting , make a scene which even today looks like a wild-eyed Edwardian painting .
Granite steps rise up from the rose garden towards the croquet lawn
In each corner of the straight terrace is an arbor , the sides mould from yew and the roof from neatly trainedParrotia persica‘Pendula ’ . These replace the original weeping elms which must have give in to Dutch elm disease . A simple planting of hart ’s clapper ferns ( Asplenium scolopendrium ) and European wild ginger ( Asarum europaeum ) carpet the nerveless primer beneath .
Lutyens ’ pergola – the yew has late been cut back hard to shorten the bulk of the hedging .
In late summertime the terrace border are at their zenith , nicely overblown and full of flowers . Dillistone create sundry planting of tree paeony , agapanthus , echinops , tritoma , sisyrinchium and heleniums down opposite slope of the garden .
Heleniums – essential perennials for a late summer molding .
Granite walls at the top end are wreathed in wisteria and underplanted with tenderCrinum × powelliiand more vivid blue agapanthus – probably my favourite works pairing in the whole garden .
An Edwardian pastoral – a terrace romantically plant with Dominicus - worshipping flower .
Up the stone steps in the fragrant garden , the dry , shaded ground is punctuated by fiery orange lilies and towering grey - whiteMeconopsis wallichii . In this part of the garden , acid loving plants are cherished , let in azaleas , magnolia , eucryphias and hoherias .
Meconopsis wallichii – a tower giant of a poppy .
Not content with build his own illusion menage , Julius Drewe also commission a miniature building in the woods for his tike and grandchildren to play in . know as the Bunty House , the tiny front garden is planted with begonia , rudbeckias and euphorbias .
The distinctly 1930 ’s Bunty House .
Nowadays we ’ve grown customary to the excess of celebrities and the newly rich . Castle Drogo bear as a reminder that this is not a new phenomenon . Lutyens ’ prodigal designs of 1911 were never fulfil in full owing to the huge disbursal of the work , which was further delayed by WWI . Julius himself waited fourteen days before the rook was habitable and snuff it only a year after it was finally completed . The palace is now setting its current custodians , The National Trust , back an incredible £ 11 million – enough hopefully to secure its hereafter , and that of the garden , for 100 to issue forth .
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Categories : Flowers , Garden Design , Large Gardens , Perennials , Planting Design
post by The Frustrated Gardener
