Tropical talk: Hole Park's Head Gardener Offers Advice On Exotic Planting
This Season's Final Practical Talk
Photo: Quentin Stark, Head Gardener of Hole Park reproduced with kind permission of Alison Miles.
The impact of climate change for the UK is causing both professional and amateur gardeners alike to consider how they can adapt their planting to be more resilient whilst staying colourful and interesting. This includes considering whether to incorporate more exotic species from traditionally warmer and wetter climes.
On Friday 20 September, for Hole Park's final practical talk of the 2024 season, the estate's renowned Head Gardner, Quentin Stark, will be offering his expert advice on the choice, suitability and management of exotic and tropical plants, and how to use them to bring vibrancy and colour to home gardens, whatever their size.
Quentin, who spent over a decade working for the Crown Estate including Frogmore and the Crown nurseries, will be offering his thoughts and advice on exotic planting, using examples from Hole Park's own tropical border - which he introduced - and from the Millennium and Centenary walled gardens.
The two-hour event starts at 10:30am and will conclude with Quentin answering questions from the audience.
Places need to be booked in advance online via the Hole Park website. Tickets are priced at £21 for adults and £10 for current season ticket holders. This includes exclusive access to the gardens after the talk, which are closed to the general public on that day.
Hole Park- Further Information:
Nestled in 200 acres of classic English parkland, Hole Park is a hidden gem of the High Weald National Landscape. It has been owned by the Barham family for the past four generations, having been purchased as a family home by Edward Barham's Great Grandfather, Colonel Arthur Barham, in 1911.
In the mid-1920s the Colonel made the bold decision to share the beauty of his recently-created gardens by opening them to the public: a tradition that is maintained to the present day. Over the decades, each succeeding generation has improved and innovated the layout and planting in the gardens.
The current custodians, Edward and Clare Barham, moved into Hole Park with their three children and dogs in 2003. Since then, they have undertaken a comprehensive re-planting program of the garden which reflects and enhances the Colonel's original plans from the 1920s.
Edward and Clare both take an active role in managing the gardens. This includes public opening days, so they are often found selling tickets in front of the house, serving in the Tea Room or walking their dogs around the gardens.
Late Summer and Autumn Highlights
The late flowering agapanthus 'Hole Park Blue' and colourful exotic border with its cannas and dahlias are an impressive sight in late summer before the reds, yellows and golds of autumn appear, bringing colour and interest to the gardens in October.
Spring Highlights
Visitors to the gardens in early April will see swathes of crocuses, narcissi and daffodils. A pretty 'Camelia Walk' with shade-loving hellebores takes walkers down a path flanked by flowering cherry trees. Before the bluebells take centre stage, the meadows and woodland floor are a sea of primroses and dainty blue scillas. Magnificent mature magnolia trees will also be flowering throughout the gardens and woodlands.
In May the gardens are full of tulips, roses and clematis and the vineyard garden has several impressive standard wisterias to admire. Rhododendrons and azaleas flower throughout the gardens and delicate wild orchids will start to flower in the meadows alongside the architectural spires and star-shaped flowers of 'camassia'. The sundial garden provides an interesting view over the Wealden countryside through an oval shaped window in the topiary hedge.
Summer Highlights
Visitors to the gardens in the summer months can see the recently renovated long herbaceous borders. Half the border has been replanted in the original pink and blue planting scheme first used by the late Christopher Lloyd when he first designed the border at Hole Park. The remainder of the border was replanted using the original colour scheme of yellow and white. Visitors can also find a riot of colour in the Centenary Garden (formerly the Rose Garden) planted in 2023 to celebrate 100 years since the original completion of Hole Park's gardens by Col Arthur Barham.
