All over the country there are hidden gardens beautifully curated, often by women, over a lifetime of hard but willing work. Testament to huge reservoirs of imagination, fortitude and often at great personal cost, these gardens form the backbone of our national horticultural tradition. Hundreds of fabulous secret gardens blooming unacknowledged, and some are home to some very particular passions.
Once museum curator and now textile artist, Jane-Ann Walton’s four-acre plot, surrounded by 13 acres of woodland in deepest Norfolk, is one such garden. Her obsession for auriculas is one I share, sadly without the success that Jane-Ann so obviously exhibits. For our latest podcast, we wandered through her garden in May; a picture in blues and purples, with ribbons of colour and wafts of scent, it is the quintessential English garden. We arrived at a summerhouse, home to a collection of small potted auriculas known as an auricula theatre, where each frilly nosegay of flowers is held on a straight stem above a rosette of often farina-covered leaves in its own terracotta pot.
Jane-Ann explained she had been inspired to start growing auriculas by a stand in the floral marquee at the Chelsea Flower Show many years ago. I remember it too; plantswoman and writer Brenda Hyatt showed her collection on black velvet-lined shelves in fancy gilt frames, illustrating Sacheverell Sitwell’s description of the plants’ perfection as akin to “the most exquisite Meissen porcelain or the silk stuffs of Isfahan”.
