LADY XA TOLLEMACHE
Lady Xa Tollemache and the gardens of Helmingham Hall
‘When I was in my twenties I had no idea about gardening. Roy taught me everything.’ We chatted as we walked, Lady Xa Tollemache pushing a wheelbarrow laden with gardening tools in front of her, the dogs trotting obediently alongside. On the other side of the paved courtyard we crossed into the garden over one of the two drawbridges that are raised every evening. Sometimes it is better not to research a place too much in advance of a visit, as the element of surprise is then so much greater. This was certainly my experience when I visited Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, a moated house set among gardens dating back to 1510 and surrounded by 100 hectares/250 acres of hunting grounds and a large estate.
Moated mansions like this are often found in the Loire Valley, where they tend to be feudal and imposing in appearance. Helmingham Hall, on the other hand, home to the Tollemaches since the early sixteenth century, is quite different. Its understated grandeur is perhaps due to the architecture in red brick, the light-coloured stone surrounds of the windows, the octagonal chimneys and ornamented finials, or the dark latticework pattern ornamenting the facade. Even the castellation is a finishing decorative flourish rather than a means of defence. Despite its substantial size and importance in English history, the property exudes a kind of homely charm. And it was here in 1976 that Xa Tollemache began her ‘apprenticeship’ as a gardener.
Her teacher was Roy Balaam, who had worked in Helmingham’s gardens since he was a boy and by the age of twenty-four had been appointed head gardener. Roy had never wanted to be anything other than a gardener and one can only marvel at his passion and expertise. He did such an excellent job of coaching his rather unusual ‘apprentice’ that Xa now not only develops her own garden with great aplomb but also designs gardens for other people. In 1997 she was invited to design her first garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by London’s Evening Standard. The judges at Chelsea set great store on plant use in those days, and the country-garden style espoused by Rosemary Verey and Penelope Hobhouse was then riding high. Xa Tollemache’s gift for planting design ensured that her exhibit won a gold medal. However, it took the lady of the manor twenty-five years of learning through experience in her own garden before she reached this high point in her gardening career. She and her head gardener, a highly accomplished team, are assisted by two additional gardeners, a part-time assistant and occasional volunteers in tending a total of 4 hectares/10 acres. Low-maintenance is not a label that could be applied to Helmingham gardens. With its magnificent borders, its box and yew hedges, topiary, roses, meadows and vegetable beds, Helmingham encapsulates the essence of a historic country house garden – one not stiff or formal, but with personality and full of ideas that could easily be transferred to much smaller gardens.
What distinguishes Helmingham is the unusual division of the garden into two distinct sections located on opposite sides of the hall, the larger of the two being on its own island and surrounded by a wall. Seen from above, they could be construed as separate entities; and yet the garden does not feel fragmented, for the hall itself acts as an anchor, as does the moat, and there is a unifying style that borrows elements from Renaissance gardens. The moat is no paltry ditch but an impressively wide sheet of water enclosing the hall on all sides. It acts as a calming, neutral barrier between the building and gardens. The surrounding deer park, a tranquil rolling landscape punctuated by great oak trees, also affects one’s perception of the garden. Unusually, the park comes right up to the edge of the moat and occupies the space on either side of the hall that separates the garden’s two sections.
SHELTER BELT
As Helmingham is only approximately 20 kilometres/12 miles from the coast, the wind is a constant presence and some form of protective enclosure is essential if anything is to grow. Consequently, the gardens are sheltered behind walls and hedges and are not immediately visible from a distance. By the time Lady Tollemache and I had hurried out from one flank of the hall, across the internal courtyard, over the drawbridge and on to the embankment running parallel to the moat, the wind was whistling around our ears. We were out in the open, surrounded by distant views, following a path mown through tall meadow grass rich in wild flowers, which swept around topiary yew cones and down the steep banks of the moat. An interesting detail was the edge of the path, not straight but beautifully scalloped. Further on, the path met a second moat and at this point was surrounded on both sides by water. A narrow embankment led us across to a rectangular island enclosed by high brick walls, where it was stiller, warmer and more welcoming.
The moat at Helmingham Hall ceased to serve any defensive purpose centuries ago.
A delightful country-garden atmosphere pervades due to the species-rich wildflower meadow, offset by the strict formality of the yew cones.
Surely this is the epitome of an English country garden: an uncontrived profusion of perennials and annuals in a wonderful mixed border, set off by the central grass path and the roses in the background.
When the walls were built in the mid-eighteenth century, they were set back rather than simply following the outline of the island, allowing space for two arms to extend and form a sort of courtyard facing the hall. It was here, in the 1960s, that Xa’s mother-in-law, Lady Dinah Tollemache, created the first purely floral area. At the foot of the walls she planted rose beds filled with Hybrid Musk roses such as yellow Rosa ‘Buff Beauty’ and white R. ‘Penelope’, which she edged with a border of Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’. She also planted a simple, formal parterre of box hedging, adorned with two urns on either side of a central axis visually linking the hall on the other side of the moat with the ornamental gates leading into the island’s Walled Garden. When this area was remodelled in 1978, the plan was to replace the parterre bedding with plants that would be attractive throughout the year. Box cones paired with ground-covering cotton lavender (Santolina chamaecyparissus) were the obvious choice, a combination still in place today, with only a token ring of bedding plants around the urns. The Parterre forms a perfect approach to the Walled Garden as well as a thematic link to the Knot Garden on the other side of the house.
DOUBLE BORDERS
Aside from the impressive yet delicate wrought-iron entrance gate, the main feature of the Walled Garden is the cruciform double-sided herbaceous border – which is where Xa Tollemache was heading with her plant-laden wheelbarrow. Roy, the head gardener, was waiting here to unload the flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata) and other annuals, and the two of them set to work on the border. Climbing roses, such as Rosa ‘Albertine’, R. ‘Gruss an Teplitz’ and R. ‘The Garland’, trained up metal supports, fringe the back of the border and form a semi-transparent screen through which the rest of the garden can be seen. The exuberant borders have a vibrancy and freshness difficult to capture even in the best photographs. Xa and Roy do not follow a dogmatic planting scheme, but combine the perennials with a slightly different selection of annuals each year. This ability to remix traditional elements, give them a twist, is a theme evident throughout the garden, ensuring there is always something exciting to see.
Winged horses guard the gateway into the Walled Garden. Rosa ‘Félicité Perpétue’, R. ‘Prosperity’ and R. ‘Buff Beauty’ were planted by Lady Tollemache’s mother-in-law.
HISTORIC LAYOUT
History hides under the surface of this garden. Back in the 1980s documents were unearthed that showed how the Walled Garden had originally been laid out in the eighteenth century. They revealed a grid system of eight equal-sized rectangular beds divided by paths, metal-framed tunnels running from side to side across the width of the garden and a border following the perimeter of the wall. This exciting discovery led the Tollemaches to do away with the unattractive large squares that had come to fill the garden and in 1986 reintroduce the historic layout. Fruit and vegetables are grown here, as in the past, but there is a limit to how much the household can consume so ever more flowers are creeping in.
The narrow border at the base of the walls is divided into sections where Xa Tollemache has themed beds such as the potager, where a range of vegetables are grown in an ornamental manner. In the topiary bed, bearded irises left over from one of her Chelsea Flower Show gardens rub shoulders with some amusing box figures: ‘the only rabbits in the garden are the topiary ones,’ says Xa. She can ‘play around’ in these beds and try out different colour schemes, like in the small section filled with the punchy colours of what she calls ‘firecracker tulips’, in bright red, orange and yellow with a dash of purple. Between this bed and its quieter, predominately pastel-coloured neighbour, is a thick slab of yew hedging, a device that Xa has used to great effect in a number of places along the border.
Inside the Walled Garden, the border along the perimeter of the brick walls has been divided by blocks of yew hedging into separate areas each displaying a different theme. This arrangement makes it possible to try out new plant combinations.
FORWARD PLANNING
The mixture of old and new, the combination of ornamental and kitchen garden plants, and the potpourri of colours, is refreshingly cheerful. Far from creating a museum-like garden for visitors, Xa Tollemache has composed a lively design which reconnects with the past. As might be expected, she is also planning for the future. Beyond the Walled Garden, over the moat on the far side of the shelter belt, she has started planting what will become a small arboretum. The trees are nothing more than slender saplings as yet, but at Helmingham there is no real rush and it is far more important that they root well and gradually adapt to the conditions. The arboretum will have clearings here and there, and small rises and dips in the lay of the land. Lady Tollemache is particularly proud of this aspect of her work, for ever since her appearances at Chelsea, where she watched the digger drivers in awe of their earth-moving skills, she has wanted to do the same. She now holds a certificate to drive a digger and can sculpt the earth herself.
WILD FLOWERS
Following on from the young arboretum, at the top end of the garden is a little-used tennis court surrounded by an apple orchard full of cowslips and orchids. This wildflower meadow is one of Xa’s newer projects and her contribution to extending the garden in a natural way. From here, a path parallel to the moat leads on to an Apple Tree Walk planted by Xa ‘because we are in the country.’ This low-key feature forms an effective transition into the sweeping and more exposed parkland. As we wandered down the Apple Tree Walk, Xa drew my attention to the ancient espaliered fruit trees trained against one outer wall of the Walled Garden. Anyone wanting to take a closer look can cross a small wooden bridge conveniently constructed halfway down the moat. The puzzling matter as to why the garden should ever have been surrounded by water can perhaps be explained by the number of animal bones found buried deep in the soil; the area was probably a stockade with safe pasture for cattle, dating back to a time when livestock had to be protected from marauding aggressors.
The warm glow of dahlias, mellow sunflowers and Verbena bonariensis underplanted with French marigolds (Tagetes patula), is in harmony with the soft colours of the house.
The past is tangible at Helmingham, through the house, the family’s ancestry and the landscape itself. Xa Tollemache is not alone in having devoted herself to the garden; it seems that the men of Helmingham have a knack for finding wives who fit in perfectly and make the garden their life’s work. A book entitled The Tollemache Book of Secrets, a complete facsimile of a manuscript held in the hall’s library, was published in 2002 by Lord Tollemache in his capacity as member of the Roxburghe Club (the oldest society of bibliophiles in the world). It reveals much about life in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Beside Nicholas Bollard’s text, which includes instructions on planting herbs and a set of drawings for knot gardens, Catherine Tollemache’s Recipes of Pastry, Confectionery etc. is of particular interest. Compiled between 1580 and 1612, during her time as lady of Helmingham Hall, Catherine’s book deals with far more than cookery: it contains instructions for herbal remedies, perfume-making, cleaning clothes and gardening.
LITERARY INSPIRATION
The Book of Secrets provided the inspiration for the smaller second garden, on the opposite side of the main house to the Walled Garden. When Mollie Salisbury (better known as the Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, an outstanding plantswoman who created two exceptional gardens, at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire and Cranborne Manor in Dorset) happened to be visiting Helmingham Hall, she remarked that a knot garden would be a perfect addition. The historical plans contained in the book were consulted and a design drawn up. Today it is hard to imagine that the Knot Garden, so at home in its surround of dense yew hedge, was created as recently as 1982 (see picture here). Standing on the ‘mainland’, across the moat from the hall, it is a perfect counterbalance to the larger Walled Garden. As Xa points out, there was nothing here before apart from her father-in-law John, 4th Lord Tollemache’s collection of ornamental ducks, which had free range.
The success of the Knot Garden is due both to its scale and how it has been incorporated into its setting. Whereas the Marchioness of Salisbury at Hatfield House created an extensive and quite magnificent knot with a complicated pattern befitting the grandeur of her house, Helmingham Hall’s version is more modest and suited to its rural location. It has been paired with a four-square pattern interplanted with herbs, and beyond lies a Rose Garden, all forming a wonderfully coherent unit when seen from the upper storey of the house. While two of the beds in the Rose Garden are filled with rosa mundi (Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’) and R. ‘The Fairy’, underplanted with forget-me-knots (Myosotis) and edged with catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’), others are planted with Portland, Bourbon and David Austin roses. The romantic atmosphere is heightened in spring by the blossom of a huge cherry tree standing in the adjoining swimming-pool garden. This, and the shady, wilder part of the garden around a small pond nearby, are the family’s favourite spots. Sheltered from the wind, they serve as a private retreat when the gardens are open to the public.
Some of these plants, including box, Iris ‘Sable’, delphiniums and white lavender (Lavandula x intermedia ‘Alba’), came from one of Lady Tollemache’s exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show and have been given a new lease of life here at Helmingham.
The ornamental gourd walk: each of the metal tunnels extending across the Walled Garden has been planted differently, adding character and variety to the garden.
Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) are undervalued and due for a revival. The combination of scented flowers with the George Carter seat at the end of this vista is particularly charming.
The developments seen at Helmingham gardens in recent decades resemble a labyrinth, cleverly flowing from one part to the next. An avenue of snow pear trees (Pyrus nivalis) with a low edging of box, leads to the coach house. Underfoot is a path of decorative brick paving, with occasional spaces left for herbaceous plants to fill. Touches of this kind add to the harmony of the overall picture, which is overlaid by an elegant modesty. Lady Tollemache’s favourite spot is the fire pit – clear evidence of her practical approach. In a similar vein, when she felt she lacked the skills to get her design ideas down on paper, she opted for a course on technical drawing rather than garden design. She has come a long way since taking those fledgling steps many years ago, and has made herself a name as both a garden designer and a highly respected plantswoman. She was elected on to the council of the Royal Horticultural Society in 2013, serves on several RHS committees and is a Garden Advisor at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex. She cites Rousham in Oxfordshire, Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire and Rosemoor, the Devon RHS garden, as places that have inspired her. All have a mixture of the picturesque and romantic, which permeate the garden even to the smallest areas. There is a strong sense at Helmingham that the past is cherished and no matter how much the outside world might change the Tollemaches will preserve and embellish this very special garden.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
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A hunger to learn more about gardening and continually add to one’s knowledge. |
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Formal areas are in the vicinity of the house and the further one moves away the more natural the design and planting become. |
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The emphasis is on having fun with colour and – to a lesser extent – a willingness to experiment. |
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It is vital to draw inspiration from the past. |
SIGNATURE PLANTS
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Roses such as Rosa ‘Debutante’. |
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The full palette of old and new roses is used to form the floral backbone of the garden, not in a formal manner but in a more relaxed and romantic way. |
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Peonies. |
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Irises, including Iris ‘White City’, I. ‘The Citadel’ and I. ‘Sable’. |
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Box (Buxus sempervirens) and yew (Taxus baccata) for hedging, cones and domes. |
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Wild flowers, as Lady Tollemache remarks, because they are ‘decorative in the transition areas and exciting, as you never know what is coming’. |