In an acid woodland garden

Press, 9 December 1988, Page 10

In an acid woodland garden

URSULA BUCHAN

makes a half-envious

visit to an English woodland nursery

Like many people who garden on an alkaline soil, I pretend that I would not dream of anything else, and certainly do want to grow all those funny plants that are only happy where the pH is less than 6. Rhododendrons? Gentians? Pieris? No thanks.

Knowing in my heart that there are few plants which grow manifestly better with me (even clematis and roses seem perfectly content on a slightly acid soil), I have to say these things to cosole myself for the small misfortune of gardening on limestone.

Nevertheless, each year when the days begin to lengthen, I find myself sneaking off, almost furtively, to spend time among those plants I cannot hope to grow myself, but which more fortunate gardeners may consider planting now. This spring, my secret yearning for the calcifuge Ericaceae (in English, lime-hating rhodendrons, summer-flowering heath-

ers, and pieris) took me to a woodland garden and nursery in Hampshire, near Boldre on the edge of New Forest.

In 1959, Peter and Diana Chappell bought a derelict stables, which had once belonged to a large house, set in an oak wood only five miles away from the Solent. They renovated it to make a holiday house (the family were keen on sailing) and laid down a drive from the road.

Although Diana was very interested in wild flowers, and painted them, neither she nor Peter were then knowledgeable gardeners. Gradually they “put a plant in here and there” and began clearing some of the trees to make the shade a little less dense.

By 1972, the Chappells were opening the garden three or four times a year for charity, and, in 1976, Peter finally admitted that their hobby had taken over. He gave up his job as a schoolmaster and they moved to the house permanently to try to develop the nursery. The nature of the original planting in the I.2ha garden has always dictated the kinds of plants the Chappells have grown.

The summer leaf canopy (together with the acid gravelly soil) means their interest has inevitably, and wisely, centred on shade-tolerant perennials, many of them spring, and early summer flowering, together with rhododendrons; camellias and

small trees, particularly magnolias and maples.

When I was there, in spring, Rhododendron loderi “King George” was striking for its great trusses of pale pink trumpets which fade to white. However, it was the considerable collection of maples, particularly Japanese maples, some of them only recently introduced to this country, which impressed me most.

Several are planted by the side of the woodland paths to waylay, even startle, the unwary. Acer palmatum Chiso Improved, for example, has leaves of a deep carmine in spring (well set off against an undercover of bluebells) which, I am told, slowly turns to a less flamboyant colour as the season wears on.

Another excellent maple which, I am glad to say, is now finding wider recognition, is Acer palmatum dissectum Seiryu with very deeply-cut leaves and browny-red stems. It grows much faster than the other dissectum varieties do, so Peter Chappell predicts a great future for it. And, of course, there is the fine Senkaki, with its yellow leaves in the autumn and coral-pink young shoots throughout the winter.

These Japanese maples are never happy on my very limey, free-draining soil — which, for the sake of my wallet, is perhaps just as well. However, they are excellent small trees for any garden with a moist, but not water-

logged, neutral or acid soil, where they can be sheltered from easterly winds.

The Chappells have made a considerable virtue out of an absolute necessity by concentrating their efforts in the garden on worth-while herbaceous perennials and bulbs which can tolerate a degree of deciduous shadecover and often, incidentally, an alkaline soil: epimediums, hellebores, and bleeding hearts (Dicentra) of exceptional quality like the blood-red Bacchanal (so-called because is is the colour of wine?) and Langtrees which has lovely glaucous foliage and pink-flushed white hearts. I bought one in flower there five months ago and it is flowing still. — Copyright London “Observer”