Yorkshire Garden Trip: Low Hall Garden

Since it’s the weekend, let’s do some armchair garden travel and return to an English summer in Yorkshire, UK. Grab yourself a cup of something warm or frizzante and follow me.

We went to Yorkshire at the end of June. It was a good time to go although they were in the beginning of a bad drought.

As always, click on the gallery photos to see them in a larger format and read the captions.

Low Hall in all of its stunning glory.

The great lawn at Low Hall. As with the other gardens in Yorkshire, Pamela’s garden was in a drought. The borders and other plants were fine, but the lawn suffered.

The greenhouse at Low Hall.

I believe this is the backside of Low Hall. Most of the gardens were in back, and we didn’t take photos in the front. However, this may, at one time, have been the front of the house.

We’re off the bus, and we’re strolling across a gravel walk toward my favorite garden on this trip at Low Hall. Low Hall is the childhood home of Pamela Holliday, who created the garden from scratch. And, what a garden it is!

We saw so many wonderful gardens–about three a day–when we were in Yorkshire you would think it hard to pick a favorite right? Well, it was, but I felt a special affinity for Pamela’s garden. Not only because it was full of roses, but also, because Pamela was suffering from a bad hip and yet, she was still able to work in the garden tweaking it here and there. I saw where she’d newly planted pansies in the main walkway before our arrival. It touched me.

Some type of white Cornus, dogwood, blooming near the central fountain.

The pond at Low Hall was an amazing area of life. There were so many insects flying about. It was wonderful.

Through the trees at Low Hall.

Lilies in the pond at Low Hall.

Chairs around the central courtyard.

Another view of the table and pond at Low Hall.

Delphiniums at Low Hall. If only we could grow these scrumptious things locally.

As I wrote above, Low Hall was Pamela’s childhood home, and when she returned in the late 1980s, her mother’s 1921 garden was unrecognizable. Sadly, my friends, our gardens don’t stay intact very long once we are gone. Undeterred, Pamela bulldozed the entire thing and started anew in 1990. What you see here has grown over the last twenty-eight years.

If I remember right, Pamela is eighty-eight years young so she would have been sixty. You’re never too old or young to start a garden my dears. Ask Pamela.

One of the stunning features of the back garden was an allée her friends made for her on her 80th birthday. Layanee DeMerchant of Ledge and Gardens, who helped organize this tour, is quite tall, and she noted the allée was rather short. Pamela isn’t all that tall. I’m not either, about 5’5″ so I didn’t notice until Layanee pointed it out to me.

Abor-allée for Pamela’s 80th birthday at Low Hall. Maybe if I live to 80, my friends and family will give me something grand too.

Another English rose at Low Hall. No one can grow roses like the English. They have the perfect summers for them.

Commemoration of allée at Low Hall.

Roses on the arbor-allée at Low Hall.

The center of the allée at Low Hall. You had to look up to see it of course.

Single rose on the arbor-allee at Low Hall. The rose reminds me of one, but I can’t place it. However, many of the roses in England are different from those sold in the U.S., or are named differently anyway.

So, my garden and Pamela’s are of a similar age. I started mine in 1989. In a letter she wrote to Layanee, Pamela said she was inspired by the gardens at Newby Hall which I wrote about in a previous post. You can see Newby Hall’s influence in some of her herbaceous borders and the long view toward the house with this fabulous urn as a focal point. I loved that urn! You can tell how much by how many photos I took of it at various angles.

The urn standing proudly in front of the wide herbaceous border.

Yes, that’s another view of the urn through the yew hedges.

View from further away. The hedges are yews of course. The English love their yews. In Oklahoma, we can only grow them in shade because it’s too hot here.

Urn focal point Low Hall.

As at the other gardens we visited on the National Garden Scheme, we were invited inside for refreshments. Pamela’s friend served elderberry cordial with frizzante water. Why don’t we do something similar in the U.S.? We could donate all of the proceeds to charity too, and it would be so nice. I know the Oklahoma Horticultural Society does a tour almost every year, and the proceeds go to horticulture students. It’s all so charming. When people come to my garden on tour, I always serve refreshments including cold drinks. It’s hot in Oklahoma so you simply must. I think, next time, I’ll serve elderberry cordial and fizzy water, or maybe elderberry wine.

The greenhouse at Low Hall.

Greenhouse and Herbaceous Border at Low Hall.

Lavender in formal planting beds outside the greenhouse. I don’t know the variety.

That fabulous urn and the walk from inside the house. Pamela’s home was as beautiful inside as it was out.

The gracious fireplace with flowers from Pamela’s garden. She likes to grow flowers to bring indoors.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little respite in your day. Happy Saturday everyone! Make it a good one.