Spring Garden Tour - Hanham Court and Special Plants

Hanham Court Gardens

Set within a hidden valley between Bath and Bristol, Hanham Court is a 13th-century estate surrounded by a deeply romantic garden created by Isabel and Julian Bannerman. The Bannermans moved to Hanham Court in 1993 and spent more than twenty years re-establishing and transforming the grounds, developing many of the ideas and approaches that have come to define their work.

The garden unfolds through a series of distinctive spaces, including formal gardens, a rose garden, woodland valley, stumpery, wildflower meadow, orchard and vegetable garden. Strong structure, yew topiary and architectural interventions sit alongside exuberant planting, with paths, framed views and changes in level creating a sense of discovery as you move through the garden.

Since 2015, Hanham Court has been home to Julia and Richard Boissevain and their family, who have continued to preserve the Bannermans’ original vision while introducing new planting schemes and developing areas of the garden themselves. The result is a garden with a remarkable sense of history and atmosphere, but one that continues to change and evolve.

Special Plants

Special Plants, near Bath, is the garden and nursery of renowned plantswoman Derry Watkins. Derry and her architect husband, Peter Clegg, bought the site in 1996, when it consisted of a derelict barn surrounded by muddy fields. Peter designed the garden across the steeply sloping site, using a series of flowing forms and levels, while Derry filled it with the unusual and distinctive plants for which she has become known.

The garden is both experimental and highly personal. Gravel gardens allow Derry to grow Mediterranean plants despite the heavy clay soil, while natural springs feed ponds, moving water and a bog garden. Elsewhere, a black-and-white border developed from Derry’s 1999 Chelsea exhibit sits alongside an orchard, vegetable garden, woodland walk and Peter’s sculpted hedging, Shapes in the Landscape.

The adjoining nursery reflects Derry’s lifelong fascination with plants and is particularly celebrated for unusual hardy and tender perennials, grasses, biennials and rockery plants. Many have their origins in Derry’s plant-collecting trips to South Africa and elsewhere, and the collection continues to change as she discovers, raises and introduces new plants. A visit offers the opportunity to see the relationship between nursery and garden first-hand, and how an exceptional plantswoman experiments with plants before putting them to work in the garden.

On the Day

Guests should meet at Hanham Court at 10.30am, where we will spend the morning. 

We will then make their own way to Special Plants, arriving for 1.00pm, where there will be time to eat picnic lunches before a talk by Derry highlighting some of the most climate resilient perennials she is cultivating. The garden will be open to explore until 3.30pm.

Please note that travel between the two gardens is not provided, and visitors should arrange their own transport.

Coffee/Tea and refreshments will be provided at both gardens. Guests should bring a picnic lunch.

SORRY NO DOGS AT EITHER GARDEN