The next chapter

When an author creates a garden, you’d expect it to tell a story, but Sir Roy Strong’s famously autobiographical garden The Laskett is more of a library of tales than a one-off book. As you weave your way through the garden, you meet statuary and features that stop you in your tracks, each one with purpose and meaning. It’s such an elaborate space, you might think you are looking at a Renaissance garden, not one that started its journey in 1973.

The names of the individual gardens offer as much intrigue as the planting, with Colonnade Court, Silver Jubilee Garden, Elizabeth Tudor Walk and The Serpentine Walk. There are few open views but plenty of vistas that draw you further in. To put the intricacy of this garden into perspective: it takes six months to clip the topiary.

It was created from nothing by Sir Roy Strong and his late wife Julia Trevelyan Oman. Julia had a distinguished career as a set designer and Sir Roy is an art historian, writer, broadcaster and served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum. They were always determined that it would be a place of constant change, and now a new chapter has been added to the story. In 2020, Sir Roy gave his hugely personal home and garden to the charity Perennial, which offers essential support and advice to those working in horticulture.

The Laskett is one of three gardens cared for by the charity, and is now in the care of senior gardener James Madge and garden manager David Wyndham Lewis. Both come with armfuls of experience: James having previously worked at the National Trust’s Cliveden Garden in Buckinghamshire; and David as head gardener of Kensington Roof Gardens. “The biggest challenge we have is trying to look after the garden without losing the spirit of the place,” David explains.

It’s essential that this garden attracts new visitors and one way of doing this has been to add more tulips for spring interest. “S