Garden TOUR
From rambling roses to shapely limes, this is a garden full of romance
Helen Roberts has a passion for roses. In the garden of her elegant Georgian rectory, situated opposite the church in a quiet Fenland village, they cover mellow red brick walls, take centre stage in her borders, twine over obelisks and create thick hedges of massed colour and fragrance.
“I just love rambling, scrambling roses, and I’m lucky they thrive here,” says Helen. “I have a massive ‘Bobbie James’, as well as ‘Cedric Morris’, ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, ‘Nevada’, ‘Fairy Rose’, ‘Ballerina’ and ‘Rambling Rector’, among others.” She lets them run relatively free, adding to the romantic, fairytale atmosphere of the one-acre garden with a north-facing area at the front, and a walled south-facing space with generous herbaceous borders to the rear of the property. Mature trees, including 10 shapely limes, statuesque beech trees and weeping ash, enclose the area, creating shelter from the flat, agricultural landscape beyond.
Despite its size, the different areas of the garden meld together, partly because of Helen’s unifying colour palette of whites, icy pinks and pale blues. Crisp box hedging is planted throughout, creating continuity. The formal lines of the topiary contrast with clouds of cottage garden flowers such as white and pink valerian, alliums, delphiniums and foxgloves, along with some surprises including untamed colonies of cow parsley, which Helen encourages.
It was pure chance which led her to East Anglia over 35 years ago, after spotting a tiny classified advertisement for the house in aSunday newspaper. “There was no picture, just a description. My husband and I thought it sounded too good to be true for the price, but we decided to drive from our home in Essex to look.”
