The Planting Schemes

Our colourful planting scheme is based on the many descriptions of the garden provided in Emily Tennyson’s journal, and on the striking watercolours painted by family friend Helen Allingham. This includes oriental poppies; poet’s laurel (Danae racemosa); lilies; varieties of delphinium; and tobacco plants (Nicotiana sylvestris), which were said to be over seven feet high in Tennyson’s day.

Along with traditional Victorian plants there are a few modern varieties that have some resistance to modern pests and diseases and are tolerant of the exposed conditions we have in the walled garden today.

V.C. Scott O’Connor, ‘Tennyson and his Friends at Freshwater’, 1897 Kitchen garden: “In the spring and summer, when its lilies and roses awake to life, it is a little paradise of beauty and colour [sic]…The air is ever mild and gentle in this sheltered spot.”