The 360-acre Hyde Hall site encompasses a range of garden styles, from the Dry Garden with drought resistant plants, to the Hilltop Garden with roses and herbaceous borders. Hyde Hall has had a lot of investment in recent years with the opening of a new Global Growth Vegetable Garden (in 2017) showing vegetables from around the world, a new Winter Garden (in 2018) hosting an RHS Trial of Cornus, a new Welcome building (in 2017), and Hilltop Complex (in 2018) featuring a new restaurant and activity centre.
There is a reference library, located in the old farmhouse. It provides a substantial collection of books on practical gardening, garden design, botanical art, garden history, wildlife gardening, plant hunting and much more.[2]
Robert Brett is the current curator after taking over from Ian Le Gros who became Head of Site.[3]
History
The garden at Hyde Hall was created by Dr and Mrs Robinson in 1955.[4] Hyde Hall was formerly a working farm on a hilltop surrounded by arable land. The site was cleared and 60 trees purchased from Wickford market a few miles away. These trees now form the Woodland Garden.
In the 1960s shelter belts of Lawson and Leyland cypress hedges were planted. During this decade the farmland to the west of the Hyde Hall hilltop was incorporated into the garden.
In 1976 Helen and Dick Robinson formed the Hyde Hall Garden Trust which would manage the garden on a long-term basis. The trust donated Hyde Hall to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993.[5]
Sources
Elliott, Brent (2004). The Royal Horticultural Society: A History 1804–2004. Phillimore. ISBN978-1-86077-272-6
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London. Held at Chelsea since 1912, the show is attended by members of the British royal family.
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, known as Port Orford cedar or Lawson cypress, is a species of conifer in the genus Chamaecyparis, family Cupressaceae. It is native to Oregon and northwestern California, and grows from sea level up to 4,900 feet (1,500 m) in the valleys of the Klamath Mountains, often along streams.
Graham Stuart Thomas, was an English horticulturist, who is likely best known for his work with garden roses, his restoration and stewardship of over 100 National Trust gardens and for writing 19 books on gardening, many of which remain classics today. However, as he states in the Preface to his outstanding book, The Rock Garden and its Plants: From Grotto to Alpine House, "My earliest enthusiasms in gardening were for....alpines." p8
The Hampton Court Garden Festival is an annual British flower show, held in early July of each year. The show is run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at Hampton Court Palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The show features show gardens, floral marquees and pavilions, talks, and demonstrations. Erected on the north and south sides of the Long Water in Hampton Court Park, it is the second major national show after the Chelsea Flower Show, but has a different character, focusing more on environmental issues, growing your own food, vegetables and cookery, as well as selling gardening accessories, plants and flowers.
RHS Garden Wisley is a garden run by the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, Surrey, south of London. It is one of five gardens run by the society, the others being Harlow Carr, Hyde Hall, Rosemoor, and Bridgewater. Wisley is the second most visited paid entry garden in the United Kingdom after the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with 1,232,772 visitors in 2019.
The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society.
Andromeda Botanic Gardens is an 8-acre (3.2 ha) botanical garden and a historic cultural attraction in the village of Bathsheba, Saint Joseph in Barbados. It is an authentic garden created by multiple award-winning horticulturalist Iris Bannochie, a female, Barbadian, self-taught scientist. It is unique, having been created from the 1950s as both a private botanical garden and a pleasure garden by an individual. Named from the Greek mythological figure of Andromeda it started as a private plant collection around Ms Bannochie's home, who was also the leading expert on horticulture on the island. Ms Bannochie wrote various academic papers from topics including the lifecycle of the whistling frog, and the vitamin C content of the Barbadian cherry. She was a mentor to many and considered the queen of Barbadian horticulture. At one point, she was responsible for introducing over 90% of the ornamental plants found in Barbados. Iris Bannochie created the garden from 1954 on land owned by her family since 1740. During the 1950s Barbados was a plantation economy with no history of garden creation. Iris Bannochie travelled the world and collected plants for Andromeda. She showed plants from Andromeda both independently and with the Barbados Horticultural Society many times at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, winning numerous medals. In 1982, Ms Bannochie's display was titled Andromeda Gardens at the Show and her exhibition of palms was the largest selection of that plant family ever seen at the Chelsea Flower Show. She was also the recipient of the RHS Veitch Medal and a fellow of the Linnean Society. In 1990, the garden had 40,000 visitors.
Tony Lord is a United Kingdom gardener, photographer and author. In 2005 the Royal Horticultural Society awarded him the Victoria Medal of Honour (V.M.H) for his work as a garden photographer, horticultural consultant and writer.
RHS Garden Rosemoor is a public display garden run by the Royal Horticultural Society in north Devon, England.
RHS Garden Harlow Carr is one of five public gardens run by the Royal Horticultural Society. It is located on the western edge of Harrogate in the English county of North Yorkshire.
The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize issued annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
Lady Anne Sophia Berry was an English-New Zealand horticulturist who founded Rosemoor Garden. She offered the garden to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1988. In 1990 she married Bob Berry and went to live on his farm at Tiniroto, Gisborne, New Zealand. She then created the Homestead Garden of Hackfalls Arboretum.
Percival Stephen Cane (1881–1976) was an English garden designer and writer.
Ellen Ann Willmott was an English horticulturist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists living in the UK by the society, in 1897. Willmott was said to have cultivated more than 100,000 species and cultivars of plants and sponsored expeditions to discover new species. Inherited wealth allowed Willmott to buy large gardens in France and Italy to add to the garden at her home, Warley Place in Essex. More than 60 plants have been named after her or her home, Warley Place.
Worsley New Hall is a former mansion and gardens by the Bridgewater Canal in Worsley, Greater Manchester, England, 8 miles (13 km) west of Manchester. The gardens were renovated by the Royal Horticultural Society and opened as RHS Garden Bridgewater in 2021.
RHS Garden Bridgewater is the Royal Horticultural Society's fifth public display garden. It is located in the village of Worsley in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
Matthew Wilson is a garden designer, writer, radio and television broadcaster and lecturer. He is a regular participant on Gardener's Question Time on BBC Radio 4.
Frederick James Chittenden (1873–1950) was a British horticulturalist and first director of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Wisley Garden. He was the author of a number of books on horticulture.
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