The Country Diary of an Edwardian Garden
by Mark James
The rock garden at Mount Ephraim celebrates its 100th birthday this year! Built in 1910 by the landscaping firm Waterers, the rock garden, with its series of 14 pools and cascades and Japanese bridge, is one of the major features of the gardens. It was built from stone quarried in Maidstone, which is about 30 miles away, and hauled to Mount Ephraim by steam engine and trailer and designed, originally, in the Japanese style, which was the height of fashion in sizeable gardens of the early twentieth century.
Although it can no longer, in any way, be described as a Japanese Rock Garden, for it has evolved and changed into it’s own style over the past 100 years, there are still the occasional glimpses to be had of the original intention.
After many years of unavoidable neglect, during the thirties and forties, the rock garden had become unkempt and so overgrown that it’s landscaping and
planting were unrecognizable, and it was only during the fifties and onwards, that the attempt was made to resurrect it.
Starting at the top of the gardens, where the visitors begin their tour, it runs in a sweeping curve, almost the full length of the gardens. The pools and cascades run Down on the bottom of the ponds, the green shoots and furled new leaves of Water lilies are showing, while further along the garden, the intense blue of Anemone blanda glows wonderfully in the spring sunshine. However, the Magnolias, Alpine Rhododendrons and Azaleas are showing no sign of breaking bud at all, as yet.
In the rest of the gardens, things are beginning to move along also. In the water garden, Marsh Marigolds are beginning to show hints of golden yellow, while the flower buds of Snake’s Head Fritillary are already quite noticeable.
The big Grey Poplar (Populus canescens), which overhangs the lake, is showing it’s catkins, and these will, in a week or two, litter the surface of the lake, in thick crusts, and block the overflow of the water garden!
At the top end of the lake, Hellebores are in full bloom. The pink, white and sumptuous satiny purple-black of Helleborus orientalis, contrasting with the acid green of Helleborus foetidus, while nearby, the green leaf spikes and canary yellow spathes of Yellow Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) are beginning to thrust their way up through the soft, water-logged ground.
In the Little Wood the Rooks are busy. They have stopped their bickering and arguing over nest sites, of a month ago, and are now beginning to nest in earnest. Their constant cawing can be heard from any part of the garden, punctuated now and then by strange choking gargles, which sounds as though the bird is being throttled. It is in fact the sound made by the female being fed on the nest by the male. Her constant calling to be fed continues even as he is feeding her, and hence the caw becomes a gargle.
The Camellias are in full flower, after having lost their early blooms to the cold weather, and the roses are showing buds and some cases, new leaves.
If we continue to have warm, sunny weather, then things will really begin to change, and we may even see a show of Daffodils, all be it nearly a month late!
ALSO OF NOTE:
- 1st Bumblebee of the year seen in the garden – 14th March
- Heard first Chiff-chaff of the year – 21st March
- Renovation work underway on cascades and waterfall in the Water Garden.
Mark James started working at Mount Ephraim in 1996, after leaving Art College, where he studied wildlife illustration. Whilst he does not have any horticultural qualifications, Mark has always had a life-long passion for natural history, as reflected by his hobbies and interests. Mark keeps and breeds exotic insects, is a collector of insects preserved in amber, and has a large collection of cacti. A regular attendee at the regional meetings of the British Cactus and Succulent Society of which he is a member, Mark is also Vice Chairman of the Hernhill Horticultural Society.