From its iconic Dry Garden to exciting new features, our Essex garden goes from strength to strength. From its iconic Dry Garden to exciting new features, our Essex garden goes from strength to strength.

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Courtyard Gardens

Planted in 2012, the Courtyard Gardens demonstrate popular planting styles. The Modern Country Garden is sleek and stylised, with its limited colour palette and symmetrical beds, while the classic Cottage Garden feels exuberant, charming and relaxed

Looking its best in...

Summer Modern and traditional cottage garden favourites: Rosa, Dierama, Geranium, Alcea, Digitalis, Nicotiana and Pennisetum
Autumn Golden grasses and fading flowerheads, look for Symphyotrichum ‘Little Carlow’, Calendula, Penstemon, Zinnia and Salvia

Modern Country Garden

This contemporary space is arranged in a grid-like configuration with large, rectangular beds and broad, straight paths. Contrasting plant structure, form and texture are also integral elements of the design that enhance the garden's modern feel.

Clipped, geometric shapes of yew (Taxus) dominate the upright planting and contrast with the compact, elevated cylinders of Pyrus salicifolia (willow-leaved pear). The soft quality of floral plantings and a range of light and airy grasses counter the larger architectural planting, and offer a carefully considered palette of colours and textures, from summer to autumn.

Planting a palette of colour

Key plant features include rows of dense, dark green grass Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’; the feathery flowerheads of Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’; the colourful stems of Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’; and the delicate blooms of Thalictrum delavayi, Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ and Gaura sinuata.

Among the blocks of formal planting, are single specimens of taller plants – the graceful flower stems and seedheads of Dierama (Angel's fishing rod) look exceptional among the grasses.

Cottage Garden

Colourful beds of lush, informal planting, which spill out over pathways, make this garden a foil to the neighbouring Modern Country Garden. Exuberant and charming, the Cottage Garden focuses on diversity and ever-evolving floral abundance.

Layers of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, bulbs, annuals and biennials, create a rich and colourful, textural tapestry. The beds are packed with old-fashioned garden favourites, including climbing and Gallica roses, delphiniums, asters and sweet peas. Traditional fruit and vegetables are mixed in among the planting – runner beans can be found scrambling up wigwams, chard and beetroot provide interesting foliage, and cardoons add an architectural quality to the space.

Seasonal delights

Despite the beautifully balanced and harmonious feel of the flowerbeds in summer, there is no deliberate colour palette in the garden, and the different seasons bring a wide variety of blooms of every hue.

Apple trees take centre stage in spring, with glorious displays of blossom, and are laden with fruit in autumn.

The backdrop of the hornbeam hedge (Carpinus betulus) comes to the fore in autumn and winter, when its shimmering bronze foliage provides depth and sculptural interest.

Plants in the Courtyard Gardens

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.