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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Upper Pond and Farmhouse Garden

On Hilltop, visitors can enjoy the crisp and formal Farmhouse Garden and Upper Pond, one of the original features of Hyde Hall, with lush aquatic plantings and colour-packed terraces

Looking its best in...

Spring A selection of beautiful blue irises, including Iris histrioides ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’, I. ‘Perry's Blue’ and I. ‘Royal Navy’
Summer Sunny borders of yellow and blue complement lush plantings of Gunnera manicata and Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’

Renovation game

When the Robinsons purchased the land at Hyde Hall in the 1950s, renovation of the pond in front of the farmhouse was their first major construction project. The farm pond was cleared of rubbish, then stocked with waterlilies and other flowering aquatic plants, as well as several types of fish – koi carp, golden orfe and golden rudd.

Punctuated with planting

Under RHS care, hard paths and terraces have been installed to make the pond more accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs. The terraces are stocked with sun-loving hardy and tender perennials in shades of yellow and blue, including Salvia, Rudbeckia, Kniphofia, Helenium and Gazania, which are punctuated by the sentinel-like forms of Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’.

Farmhouse Garden

Directly in front of the farmhouse, the Farmhouse Garden benefits from crisp, formal lines and hard landscaping, which enclose a series of square beds surrounded by tightly-clipped hedging and filled with relaxed planting.

Regular visitors will notice that the exterior of the farmhouse has received a coat of paint and new window frames, which make it a more fitting backdrop to the beautiful Farmhouse Garden planting.

Plants around the Upper Pond and Farmhouse Garden

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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.