Garden TOUR
A peaceful retreat that is full of colourful, contrasting shapes and textures
Located at the far end of a remote and winding track, and blessed with beautiful views across open Cambridgeshire countryside, Ferrar House is a place of peace and beauty.
“The garden is part of a Christian retreat,” explains head gardener Jane Page. “As we aren’t here to tend the garden every day, we rely on colourful plants with a long flowering period, tough plants that never need any cosseting and drought-resistant plants that don’t need regular watering.”
This colourful but low-maintenance garden contains red valerian (Centranthus ruber), geranium ‘Rozanne’, self-sown aquilegias, hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’, daylilies, Echinops ritro, santolinas, fragrant rosemary and roses.
“The roses are from a previous era and are looking healthy now they have plenty of manure around their feet,” says Jane. “I love the bergenias, especially those whose foliage colours up in winter, some to a deep maroon, interspersed with snowdrops and daffodils underplanted with Alchemilla mollis.”
Dating back to the 17th century, when a small religious community was formed at Ferrar House, it became the inspiration for American poet TS Eliot, who visited in 1936 before writing the last of his Four Quartets – Little Gidding. “The garden has something very special,” says Jane. “It’s a ‘thin place’ – a Celtic phrase referring to the point where the spiritual and physical worlds meet.”
