Garden TOUR
GARDEN TO VISIT
Masses of bulbs and velvety carpets of irises make this a must-see garden to lift the spirits in darkest winter
For an uplifting visit in February, it’s hard to beat the Winter Garden at Dunham Massey in Cheshire.
Billed as one of the largest of its kind, it is the perfect setting for shooing away the dark days and welcoming the hope that comes with anew year. From carpets of bonny, early-flowering daffodils through to stark white birch softened with snowdrops in their thousands, and not forgetting scented shrubs, you are guaranteed to go home with a spring in your step.
The Dunham Massey estate covers an impressive 3,000 acres, but its focal point is the 17th century mansion filled with art and other treasures (which opens in March), the deer park and ornamental gardens.
Entering these gardens’ 16 acres brings you straight into the Winter Garden. It’s unusual because it’s a woodland area of ornamental trees and shrubs whose leafless limbs and trunks set the scene perfectly. Emily Chandler, head gardener, believes the garden is stronger for it as sunlight can penetrate, bringing much-needed warmth and light to the bulbs waiting for their cue to open. Rich colours and unusual textures from bark and papery flower heads add to the overall display, while underplantings of irises, daffodils, crocuses and, of course, snowdrops complete the layered effect.
Daffodil lovers will be delighted with the cheery welcome in the Yellow Meadow, which is bursting with narcissus ‘February Gold’ and new drifts of its white flowering variant, ‘February Silver’, planted the previous autumn. Ashort way along is the Birch Triangle where trunks of strong Betula ‘Snow Queen’ glisten and provide a natural theatre for thousands of snowdrops to perform. Groups of more specialist snowdrop cultivars are planted throughout the Winter Garden; keep an eye out for double forms and those with more unusual markings.
A carpet of deep blue and purple irises, a real visitor favourite, is lifted with lighter blues and yellows from the popular iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ and the much paler lemon of ‘Katharine’s Gold’.
It’s not just the small bulbs that put on a cracking s
