Blooming MARVELLOUS

Spring is Michael and Caroline Dedman’s favourite time of year and with tulips and blossom bursting into life it’s not hard to see why...

- NICOLA STOCKEN

A garden’s mood can be as changeable as an English spring day – one moment subdued as heavy showers fall, and another light and joyous. At South Shoebury Hall, come April, rain or shine, this garden cannot fail to raise a smile with its spectacular display of spring bulbs. ‘After winter, we’re all desperate for colour and there’s nothing better for adding the “wow” factor than tulips,’ say Michael and Caroline Dedman from their Grade II-listed house, which dates back to 1450 with later Georgian additions in 1763.

Spring is Caroline’s favourite time of year, not only for the unrivalled intensity of colour but also because of the way the garden changes character.

‘After winter, it’s as if the garden has a new lease of life,’ she points out. ‘Spring is so fresh and lively, and brings with it all the promise of the season to come.’

The garden peaks in both spring and July when nearly 200 different varieties of agapanthus steal the show, thriving in the microclimate created by the proximity of the sea, a mere 300 metres away as the crow flies.

FRONT GARDEN

Spring, it seems, arrives here in a rush and, before even passing through the garden gate, there are tantalising glimpses of the colourful front garden framed by an arch in a brick wall smothered in climbing hydrangea.

Beds and borders are filled with daffodils, tulips and crown imperial fritillaries, which tower in stately fashion above a froth of forget-me-nots and comfrey that have both self-seeding spontaneously.

Overhanging the beds are a pink magnolia, an old pear and apple trees, scattering pink or white blossom confetti-like in the breeze.