THE
english
GARDEN FEBRUARY 2026
For everyone who loves beautiful gardens
www.theenglishgarden.co.uk
PLANTS FOR FRAGRANCE & COLOUR NOW
Timeless Gardens
The WOMEN behind famous snowdrops
Historic places with stories to tell
Inspiration for February ●
The prettiest PRIMROSES
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HEDGELAYING with Paul Lamb
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The year-round GREENHOUSE
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TOP 10 plants for texture
£6.99 £5.99
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Topiary yew columns and yew and box balls float amid a sea of eryngium bearing thistly metallic-blue flowers.
Rooted IN TIME
Set high above the River Avon, Hanham Court’s historic gardens are being gently renewed by owner Julia Boissevain. Keeping a careful eye on preserving their heritage, she’s introduced forward-looking planting to make this multilayered landscape rich, wild, and irresistibly inventive WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS MARK BOLTON
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Do Try This AT HOME
Inspiring visitors with techniques from water conservation to making comfrey tea, Ann Tulloch reimagines the historic spaces of Durham’s Crook Hall Gardens with organic flair and shows how simple, sustainable ideas can flourish in every garden WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX 32 THE ENGLISH GARDEN FEBRUARY 2026
This image Mauve
campanula and orange astroemeria rub shoulders with Himalayan honeysuckle in an example of Ann’s inventive mixed planting. Opposite Paths mown through longer grass.
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The borders leading to the summerhouse have been planted for midsummer interest, with salvia, catmint and stachys in dreamy hues.
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A New Chapter The historic Arts & Crafts garden at Rodmarton Manor in the Cotswolds was first tentatively, then boldly, reworked room by room by Sarah Biddulph, who was keen to honour the horticultural efforts of past generations while adding her own stamp WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS MANDY BRADSHAW
Dry SPELL Sand and recycled concrete become the surprising canvas at West Dean in Sussex, where Tom Brown’s drought-resilient planting proves that sustainability and beauty aren’t mutually exclusive in a heritage garden and can be combined to magical effect WORDS BENJAMIN POPE PHOTOGRAPHS ANNAÏCK GUITTENY
West Dean’s Sunken Garden, now filled with sand and planted with drought-resistant salvias, felty Stachys byzantina and Achillea ‘Moonshine’.
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P L A N T FO C U S An old-fashioned favourite, charming Primula vulgaris ‘Alba Plena’ has fully double white flowers from early spring.
Early to Rise Colour comes early thanks to the intriguing diversity of primroses. Val Bourne makes a case for letting these spring charmers seed and hybridise through your garden, providing abundant beauty as well as food for the season’s first pollinators PHOTOGRAPHS ANNAÏCK GUITTENY FEBRUARY 2026 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 69