THE gardens at Leonardslee in Sussex are famous for their rhododendrons and azaleas in spring, especially for the hybrids bred by Sir Edmund Loder more than 100 years ago. It is less well known for the glorious colours that its thousands of deciduous trees and shrubs flaunt in autumn. Yet Leonardslee is good for a visit at any season: there is no end to what the keen gardener will learn and enjoy.
The history of these gardens is inevitably bound up with the Loder family. In 1889, Sir Edmund Loder bought the 1,000-acre estate from his father-in-law, William Hubbard, who had planted many of the oldest trees still standing in the sheltered valley. Before that, earlier in the 19th century, Charles Beauclerk MP, a descendant of the 1st Duke of St Albans, had planted a fashionable American garden, with conifers and other exotics from the US. The history of
