Admington Hall

About Admington Hall

First Impressions

From Admington village, entering the garden from the far end of the broad lawn we have a good view of the house. The stone frontage is Georgian with an Edwardian extension and backs onto the original 17th Century house. There are many new, young plantings around the lawn – cedars, maples, American oaks, American sweetgum among others. There are also a number of mature trees, including field maple, horse chestnut, beech and red oak. The house is flanked on both sides by mature cedar of Lebanon, the traditional ‘must have’ trees of the Georgian period. In contrast, a sculpture of two boxing hares rise up in mad March style. Behind us we can admire the view up to the surrounding hills and the undulating countryside beyond.

Climbing the front of the house are Rosa ‘Cooper’s Burmese’ and R. ‘Golden Showers’. A fine example of a mature wisteria with its lovely gnarled trunk shrouds the portico. Planting here consists of simple shrubs, herbaceous perennials, spring bulbs and large clouds of clipped box topiary.

The White and Pool Gardens

Turning right we pass into the White Garden, a York stone path flanked by two beds containing varieties of white flowering shrubs, herbaceous perennials, bulbs and annuals and the traditional Rosa ‘Iceberg’ which is prominent throughout the garden.

We move into the Pool Garden, the pool house on the left. Here we find a cluster Italian Terrace pots with a variety of annual colour, all grown from cuttings on site to include the prolific flowering Plumbago and a variety of salvias and pelargoniums. Yew topiary is prominent, as it is throughout the garden. The pool border comprises regular clumps of Rosa ’Sally Holmes’ amongst a soft and floating waft of umbels, grasses and pastel colours throughout. The robust white-flowering Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Stand up Comedian’ grows prominently through a combination of grasses and herbaceous perennials such as Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’, Thalictrum ‘Elin’, Galtonia candicans and Salvia nemerosa.

The Walled Garden

The kitchen garden is divided into a number of areas by strong, low hedging, including innovative combinations of box and yew. Two short avenues of pleached and layered hornbeam are unusual in their presentation. There is a gravelled central walkway edged by varieties of thyme, leading to a central water feature with a cherub in lead. Here we can see four productive working beds, supplying year round vegetables and flowers for the house and a newly positioned ornamental fruit cage. The stream flows through the bottom of the garden behind a tall hornbeam hedge. At the top end of the walled garden near the house is a deep and richly planted new border, enjoying the heat of the brick wall. A Hartley Botanic greenhouse stands proud stuffed with pelargoniums.

Apostle Borders

We exit towards the house, which brings us into the main drive, flanked by two striking ‘hot’ borders full of vermilion reds, scarlets, claret and the gushing pink of Geranium psilostemon. There are twelve Irish ‘Apostle’ yews, eleven inside the main drive to the house and one, Judas Iscariot, poignantly positioned outside the entrance. Looking beyond Judas towards the main gates, note the seventeenth century gabled Dovecote and the sweet chestnut on the right.

The Courtyard Garden

Turning left towards the rear of the house we pass a line of three hybrid Crataegus x lavalleei ‘Carrierei’ and then left again into the Courtyard Garden, passing a pair of stone dogs on guard. We now face the oldest part of the house, built in mellow Hornton stone and dating originally from 1548. There are small lawns, defined by low box and large pyramids of yew. At the drive end is a large oak arbour, an abundant grape entwined with wisteria clambers up the oak timbering and a Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris grows in the corner. Standing with your back to the arbour, note the bulge in the walls of the house. Schizophragma hydrangeoides and climbing roses cover a new brick extension to the house, built by the current owners in 1995 onto an existing single storey building. Among the mixed planting of perennials in the Courtyard is Rosa ‘Raubritter’ and Rosa ‘the Lark Ascending’ both favourites of the owner punctuated by clumps of Euphorbia wulfennii

The Orchard

From the Courtyard Garden we move into a smaller courtyard with the familiar Rosa ‘Iceberg’ and R. ’Mermaid’ covering the walls and further Italian Terrace pots with standard topiary flanking the back entrance to the house. On the right is the orchard, a mass of bulbs such as Camassia, Fritillaria, Scilla and dwarf Narcissus carpeting the grassy areas in spring. Mown paths wind through the long grass which is currently in the process of being planted into parterre meadow and the trees are a mixture of apple, pear, plum and walnut. A pair of mature horse chestnuts stand proud in the middle. Note the sculpted fruit made from used horseshoes.

We turn left along a green walkway with oaks and hazel on the right, underplanted with a sea of Camassias. To our right stands The Thinker, a figurative lead statue surrounded by newly planted Malus Transitoria, hazel and Stachyrus praecox, densely underplanted with spring bulbs and wild flowers. Philadelphus and beech flank the stream on the left. Looking ahead there are lovely English views of the mature treescape and rolling hills ahead, interspersed with large herbaceous beds on the right and a meandering stream on the left.

The Yew Garden

This consists of various different shapes and sizes of clipped yew topiary, the idea being to eventually emulate a chess board. Italian Terrace pots bulging with Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ offer a sharp contrast to the structured shapes of the yew.

We are then taken into a narrow stretch of garden flanked by Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’ that sit inside small platforms of densely planted Sarcococca. We cross the wooden bridge, noting the herons in the stream on the left. Japanese maples beside the stream add an oriental touch amongst regular plantings of ferns, Darmera peltata, Persicaria, Lythrum, Rodgersia, Astilbe purpulanze and soft white Astrantias. We pass golden rain trees on both sides and enter an avenue of tulip trees, soon crossed by another avenue of the same species with a row of pleached lime punctuating the end of the garden. A large wildflower meadow to our left surrounds a wide walkway of hornbeam, in the middle of which there is an ornate rose arbour with Rosa ‘Mortimer Sackler’ climbing up 7 metal plinths. Regular plantings of Malus Transitoria set inside squares of clipped hornbeam, dictate the outer shape of the meadow.

The Water Garden

Turning left at the end of the hornbeam avenue, move south towards the pond, an area largely dominated by mature trees. You will see examples of different species of oak, pine and a handsome Cornus kousa. One striking tree is a large ash, notable for its shape, bark, height and health. Although partially hidden, it is one of the best trees in the garden. The current owner has added extensively to this planting with a combination of specimen trees, magnolias and large shrubs.

Walking on, we pass the pond on our left, the planting here is dominated by large clumps of Gunnera and waterloving plants continuing on from the Stream Garden. A large Salix babylonica punctuates the corner by a handsome oak jetty amongst a carpet of hyacinths and narcissi in spring. Beyond is a tennis court surrounded by a large hornbeam hedge and a grove of ornamental flowering cherries densely underplanted with Narcissus ‘Thalia’. Finally we reach a glade of silver birch and further Scots pine before re-emerging at the top end of the broad lawn.