Burnished credentials

The garden at Blackland House, Calne, Wiltshire The home of Mr and Mrs Ed Nicholson Famous for its spring bulbs, this garden comes into its own in autumn with its crisp underpinning of geometric forms, says Mary Keen

- Mary Keen

BLACKLAND HOUSE in Wiltshire is where Polly Nicholson established Bayntun Flowers and where she keeps the National Collection of English Florists' and Dutch historic tulips dating from the early 17th century. Visiting the garden in spring, I had witnessed a panoply of tulipomania under blossoming trees. There were tulips growing everywhere in pots and tubs or colouring flowerbeds where, later, roses or perennials would flourish. Many more tulips had been planted in grass and the most cosseted historic rarities were lined out in rows, or arranged in vases on the long loggia table.

It was hard not to think that, after this celebration of bulbs, the garden would become less interesting. (When the tulips flower, they are so eye-catching that the bones of the garden are less apparent.) Mrs Nicholson loves the exuberance and freshness of spring and says that she often finds the summer months less than thrilling, but the truth is that the garden comes into its own in autumn, with an entirely different focus.

The late-Georgian house enjoys a beautiful setting next to the tiny 13th-century church of St Peter. The Wiltshire Downs surround the park and the River Marden, which runs through the garden, has a bubbling cascade, with the relic of a grotto nearby. It made me wonder if the 18th-century father-and-son grotto- and cascade-makers, Joseph and Josiah Lane, who worked at Bowood, a few miles away, might have been involved. The dark alluvial soil, which is the reason for the name Blackland, is a gardener's dream. It's an utterly poetic place, where the late Candida Lycett Green, John Betjeman's daughter, once lived. Yet, when the Nicholsons bought Blackland House 16 years ago, there was much to be done, inside and outside.