SEEDS OF INSPIRATIONS

SNOOPING around England's finest gardens with an inquisitive eye, a sharp pencil and a fat notebook is one of the best ways to glean ideas and gain inspiration for your own humbler patch. Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, for example, has single-handedly made the silvery weeping pear tree one of suburbia's back-garden favourites, and many a city gardener has discovered the planting possibilities of the ornamental onion by eyeing up the purple alliums under the laburnum tunnel at Barnsley House, near Cirencester.

Seasoned garden visitors know that taking notes is preferable to taking photographs - the pale-blue blob in the glossy print could remain an eternal mystery unless there is a label alongside to identify it as Corydalis flexuosa Norman's Seedling. A three-line description is a more certain way of recording a favourite plant for future reference.

Pulling out silver embroidery scissors from the handbag is a trick employed by many a nimble-fingered little old lady to gain cuttings when the Head Gardener's back is turned. This is not a ploy that I recommend. Some great gardens, such as Hadspen in Somerset, have clear, large warning signs that instruct visitors not to touch the plants; they do not, however, warn what they will do if culprits are caught.

It is safer, and more plant friendly, to collar the gardener himself and ask directly. Many of the best gardens, Hadspen included, will have an area of plants for sale, where you could find a young plant of the prize specimen you admired five minutes previously.

If you want to visit gardens to gain inspiration for your own plot, do some research first. There is little point visiting Leonardslee Gardens, Sussex, in May, for instance, if you have limey soil; the place is crawling with rhododendrons that would curl up their leaves and die in your garden.

Nor is there much point trekking to Mottisfont Abbey, Romsey, in August for the roses when they peaked in June. Lawn freaks would not enjoy Denmans, which is a superb three-acre example of how to grow plants in gravel, masterminded by garden designer John Brookes.

At this time of year, the focus is on flower borders, and, arguably, none are better than those at Great Dixter, Sussex, home of one of our finest gardeners, Christopher Lloyd. If you are daunted by the magnificent Long Border, imagine just a small piece of it reproduced in your garden; along every foot, examples of good planting partners are there for the filching.

And the small Exotic Garden, hitting its stride this month, is full of tropical-style plants that need warmth and shelter to thrive; the whole space could be copied canna for canna in a London plot.

Hadspen's borders are jaw-dropping stuff - right now, the exquisitely colour co-ordinated borders in the two-acre curved walled garden are at their most sumptuous. You could even learn to love a yellow border, given the colourist treatment of Nori and Sandra Pope, the Hadspen team; follow planting schemes petal by petal with their new book, Colour by Design, (Conran Octopus, GBP 25), out on 20 August.

Rosemary Verey's garden at Barnsley House is inspirational even in the depths of winter, but if you fancy a kitchen garden, head for the world's most perfect potager, and take note. Instead of the large scale at Villandry in France, Verey's potager is comfortingly small and, with weathered brick paths in a pleasing pattern, infinitely easy to copy.

For vegetable variety, the huge working kitchen garden within the 35 acres of West Dean Gardens, Chichester, is unbeatable, and even has a small-scale display area with cultivation details. The Victorian glasshouses are crammed with breathtaking displays of hothouse plants and this weekend sees the Chilli Festival, when more than 100 varieties of potted peppers will be lined up in all their scarlet glory.

Seeds of inspiration English gardens to visit Barnsley House, Barnsley, four miles north-east of Cirencester on B4425; admission GBP 3, children free.

Mon, Wed, Thurs and Sat, 10am-6pm. Tel: 01285 740281.

Hadspen Garden, Castle Cary, Somerset, two miles south-east of Castle Cary on A371 to Wincanton; admission GBP 2.50, children 50p. Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun and Bank Hol Mon, 10am-5pm. Tel: 01749 813707.

Great Dixter, Northiam, Sussex, quarter of a mile north-west of Northiam, off A28, eight miles north-west of Rye, admission to medieval manor house and garden: GBP 4, children GBP 1. Daily except Mondays, 2-5pm.

Tel: 01797 223053.

Denmans, Fontwell, Sussex, turn south on A27 at Denmans Lane, west of Fontwell Racecourse; admission GBP 2.80, children GBP 1.50. Daily 9am-5pm.

Tel: 01243 542808.

West Dean Gardens, five miles north of Chichester on A286; admission GBP 3.50, children GBP 1.50. Daily, 11am-5pm. Tel: 01243 818210.

Useful guides: The Good Gardens Guide 1998, edited by Peter King (Ebury Press, GBP 14.99); Gardens of England and Wales Open for Charity (National Gardens Scheme, GBP 4.50).

Copyright 1998
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.