Setting Autumn Ablaze

An East Anglian garden puts on a spectacular show as it comes alive with a riot of rich colour

- Rosamond Richardson

TUCKED AWAY DOWN narrow lanes in the undulating farmland of the Essex Suffolk border, a spectacular autumn display can be seen. Sheltered from the north wind by a 20 acre nature reserve of native trees and shrubs, three tree species, acers, nyssas and liquidambars, are competing to see which can display the richest hues in their eight acre garden.

From October through to December, they create a canvas splashed with scarlet, cerise and deep reds, punctuated by faded greens and old golds.

Screened from the River Stour by muted amber tones of birch trees and a silvery mist of willows, the acers are aglow. The site is home to approximately 50 of these slow-growing, small deciduous trees, with their graceful habit and beautiful foliage. The predominantly wine-dark Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’ spreads graceful branches to the ground, with leaves of ruby, dark salmon-pink and flame. Near it, A. japonicum ‘Laciniatum’ bears filigree foliage of raspberry-soft pinks and cream, with touches of purplish red. Turning red-gold, the rare Acer triflorum has been pruned into shape with an artist’s eye. “So many people shove trees in the ground and forget about them. They become misshapen, whereas the judicious cutting of their branches can give them their beautiful form,” says Major Iain Grahame, the garden’s creator.

Hurricane’s effects

Almost as soon as he arrived at Daws Hall in 1965, Iain started to oversee the planting of trees in a process still ongoing today. His plantings include a coastal redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, a giant fir, Abies grandis, and two swamp cypresses, Taxodium distichum. They all now combine to define the shape of the garden.