Anyone who can say, almost as a throw-away remark “We now have about a hundred magnolias” is self-evidently a garden owner with a profound knowledge of trees, and, also self-evidently, has the space in which to grow them. That owner is a woman whose name has, for me, long been a byword for garden design skills of the highest, almost peerless, quality. She is Arabella Lennox-Boyd and it is a special joy for me to return, after a gap of several years, to her garden, Gresgarth Hall, in Caton, near Lancaster.
We spend a quite magical afternoon together, walking the many paths at Gresgarth Hall, admiring the extraordinary diversity and quality of its planting, discussing the challenges such a remarkable garden presents, and comparing ideas about resolving the horticultural questions that individual plants pose.
The terrace is where
