Ossington House

About Ossington House

The drive is newly planted on the west side with Irish yews alternating with Beurre Hardy pears and on the east side with three Sorbus aria Lutescens. To the west of the house and drive is an old orchard of apples, pears, and plums with apple additions of Beauty of Bath, Cox’s Orange Pippin, and Scrumptious. Through double doors a path leads into the main garden. To the left a shaded bed of ferns, foxgloves and lily of the valley. A grass path continues to a formal lawn edged by a terrace in front of the house, dotted with erigeron karvinskianus. The borders are filled with nepeta, salvia nemerosa, geranium Rozanne. Past an urn the path leads to the Vicarage Garden, between a holly hedge and the east-facing original front of the house. A woodland path leads south from the formal lawn, between yews and under an ancient chestnut. Brunnera, rugosas, and persicaria edge the path which continues between oaks and yews underplanted with symphytum, hellebores, and geranium phaeum. It continues into a woodland area planted with hydrangea Annabelle, magnolia stellata, and rosa Roseraie de l’Hay. Under an old cherry the path reaches the swimming pool, with a paved terrace surrounded with rosa mundi, choisya ternata, and rosa Generous Gardener (named for the NGS). Under another old chestnut the path leads past acanthus mollis, astrantia, and campanula to a circular lawn surrounded by geraniums, grasses, and weigela. Paths lead from the circular lawn back to the woodland walk, back to the pool, and back to the formal lawn.