Topiary at Sandringham
The Garden area to the west side of Sandringham House kept as a large expanse of lawn in recent years, is to be transformed into a new climate friendly Topiary Garden. Once the site of a formal ‘Parterre’ Garden in the 1800s and subsequently used for crops as part of the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign in the Second World War, this area of the Garden will now have a decorative aspect and bring increased naturalistic planting to the area to improve biodiversity.
Working to a plan by award-winning landscape designers Landform, an acre of land will be cleared, redeveloped, and replanted in the coming months. The plans include the redeployment of topsoil and turf removed from the initial works to be ameliorated and used back in the beds of the Topiary Garden.
In recent years, with changing weather patterns the current expanse of lawn has been affected by warm weather and excessive rainfall. The newly developed Garden will introduce new species that are more robust, hardy and better able to withstand the impact of emerging weather patterns. A series of gravel paths will also enable visitors to experience the new Garden and provide maintenance access to the plant beds.
With its aim to create joy for visitors and increase biodiversity in the Gardens, the Topiary Garden will include the introduction of new plants and flowers, a maze of new paths and the regrading and straightening of sloping banks. The Garden will combine specialist horticultural practices and techniques to ensure the Topiary is maintained with plentiful visual seasonal colour from the flowers. In addition, it will create a rich source for pollinators and the provision of new habitats.
The new Garden will see 5139 Yew tree hedging plants in a range of sizes and shapes to eventually become topiarised and will gain a mix of more than 4280 herbaceous perennial plants and bulbs including Veronicastrum (Veronica), Delphinium, Phlox, Echinacea, Lavender and other versatile species. The central area will also feature several yellow and pink rose varieties such as ‘Gabriel Oak’, “Skylark’ and ‘Charles Darwin’.
Sandringham Gardens will reopen to visitors in early February as the work continues, with minor diversion routes around the West Lawn area. The new landscaping is expected to be complete and open to visitors by the end of May 2023.
For the most up to date information on the Garden reopening in February you can visit the Sandringham Estate website www.sandringhamestate.co.uk
