A tribute to Giverny: Iris ‘Benton Lorna' and I. 'Benton Deirdre', chosen for matching heights, colour and flowering times.
TOM and Mary Hoblyn bought Mansard House 18 years ago, when they fell in love with the brick-built Dutch-gabled house and its ramshackle plot of land. The tall 17th-century building is on a slight hill, with its back to the thriving and pretty village of Bardwell, peering out towards the water meadows that lie beyond. This is deepest Suffolk and the view opens out onto marsh with tall stands of 100-year-old coppiced alders.
The Hoblyns' 242 acres was a field deep in brambles and weeds. To begin, they established formal areas near the house, including a black-lined swimming pool backed by a semicircle of pleaching, a camassia meadow and a workmanlike walled vegetable garden. There is a new Mediterranean garden, still a work in progress, and an iris garden as a tribute to Monet's garden at Giverny in France.
From the top of the plot, the gently sloping ground flows away downhill to hug a tributary of the Black Bourn, with the furthest and lowest area narrowing by degrees to become a cathedral aisle of willows, which lean in and shed limbs willingly. Ramblers such as Rosa 'Albéric Barbier' and R. 'Bobbie James' have been planted against some of these and are now ready to shimmy up to 30ft or more. This is the laboratory, in which plants are trialled in extreme conditions for future use in client projects. It is an intensely watery place, prone to winter flooding.
A bridge to the adjoining water meadow.
Denne historien er fra April 27, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 27, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
