Roses star in country cottage garden

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 16

Roses star in country cottage garden

Roses are the constant theme of Sally and Bey Allison’s hillside garden at Lyddington, Fernside, near Rangiora.

The farmhouse is situated on a clay cliff overlooking the Ashley River, and consisted 28 years ago of two rooms perched on top of a bare hillside to take advantage of a com-

manding view to Mt Thomas and the snow capped peaks of the mountains. Since then, both the house and the garden have continually developed.

Roses were first brought into the garden about 16 years ago when Sally Allison discovered the 'possiblity of using the old-fashioned roses as garden shrubs. Among the originals were "Dupontii,” the early yellow “Canary Bird.” “Fruhlingsanfang.” and “Golden Wings.” During the years Sally has explored the adaptability and functions of the different varieties of roses. She grows them with trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, in informal beds around the house, against walls, scrambling over arches, through plantings of other shrubs, as hedges for enclosure. and as foundation planting around the house.

There are pillar roses climbing and twining up poles of punga, roses pegged down as ground cover, rambling roses, tea roses, roses for flower arrangements, and miniature roses.

The garden at Lyddington is essentially a family garden incorporating vegetables, a pool, and tennis court to which Sally Allison has added a cottage-garden feeling of informality by growing other shrubs and herbaceous plants among the roses.

Around the house the colour theme is cream, white, and pinks, with touches of blue. The oldfashioned rugosa Frau Dagmar Hastrupp, and the newer Maria Matilda are surrounded by white foxgloves and large white poppies. There are white and blue forget-me-nots and a group of tiny, white flowered “.Anna Maria de Montravel” in the foreground. Nearby are two floppy old tea-roses “General Gallieni” and “General Schablikine,” and across the path is the sumptuous Mutabilis with large blooms of constantly varying colour.

Lavenders of many sorts and shades — French. Italian, English — run through the bed. and in one corner the gentle pink Fritz Nobis asociates with a beautiful, pale blue abutilon in glorious combination. A hedge of "White Spray” encloses the potager vegetable garden. Nearby a new hedge of the lower growing paperwhite “Blanc Double de Coubert” has been added. Close to this a cartwheel

structure made by Bey Allison supports the rampantly beautiful "Filipes Kiftsgate.”

A rustic rose arch, with herbs contained within terracotta pipes at the base, leads to the potager garden w'hich has a pigeon coop as its focal point. Further on are the shade house and hot-box where Sally grows rose cuttings. About half of the roses in the garden have been raised by this method, and in making the garden which has been built up with masses of rotted silage and river silt, she has been much helped by her son, Jonathan, who has also made the informal brickwork paving which runs through the garden. Two “The Fairy” roses border the entrance to the swimming pool as Sally particularly enjoys their

foliage outlined against the water. Acting as a foil amongst the other roses are the white woolly leaves of Salvia argentea and masses of catmint and Queen Anne’s lace.

The lax Gallicas, and more “blowsy roses” have been planted along a walk on the far side of the garden, and a collection of wild species roses has been established around the outer reaches of the garden near the tennis court Their wildness forms a link betwen the garden and the surrounding countryside. By contrast closer to the house another bed has been planted with modern roses for picking. These are mostly of warm amber and buff colours and includes Julia’s Rose, Vesper, Amber Queen, Stargaze and Nancy Steen. Beneath

these roses the ground cover is formed by a dark brownish-red viola. The garden is full of delights — the beautiful white “Gerbe Rose” patterning against the warm brickwork of a west wall, "Marechel Niei” twining up a punga pole which it shares with the Clematis Spooneri. Backed by the tiny, exquisite golden cups of “Goldfinch," the flower colours tone in perfectly. A row of “Ballerina” forms a fragrant hedge beneath a bedroom window, and round the corner “Nancy Haywood,” a great favourite with Sally, with its floppy scarlet petals, is one of the first roses out in the garden and one of the longestlasting. The more Sally Allison find out about roses, the more she appreciates

their versatility. Beauty of form and perfume are obvious attributes, but she alos loves their variable foliage — the beautiful purplish tonings of Rubrifolia Carmenatta, the fresh glossy green leaves of “Canary Bird,” and the feathery foliage of Woodsi! fendlert This rose also has spectacular fruits in autumn as do many of the oldfashioned roses. Then there are interesting thorns such as those of Sericea pteracantha which has thick prickles of bright red sealing wax. Most of all, Sally Allison prefers roses in single flower form, their simplicity and naturalness being one of the most moving aspects of rose growing which exemplifies the feeling which she tries to produce in her garden at Femside.