Secluded Garden

This relaxed and intimate cottage-style garden is designed to appeal to all the senses, illustrated with poems on sight, scent, hearing and touch. Behind earth mounds, intertwined limes form a hedge on tall stems to circle a spiral fountain. A stream is bordered with waterside plantings and scented flowers.

Scents are provided by the rose "Madame Isaac Periere", tied into hazel wigwams, Daphne bholua "Jaqueline Postil", and the Pelargonium species in the small conservatory. There are fruiting trees, as well: quince (Cydonia "Vranja"), apple and pear (Malus and Pyrus species), bringing interest from blossom to ripening fruit.

Many of the plants are tactile, from the curly ferns to the smooth surfaces of the arum lily Zantedeschia aethiopica "Crowborough". Others are visually remarkable. Summer brings the rocketing spires of the foxtail lily (Eremurus robustus), mullein (Verbascum bombyciferum) and the giant lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum). The varying shades of the Japanese iris (Iris ensata), the flaming winter orange stems of willow (Salix "Britzensis") and the showy pinks of the tissue-thin flowers of Cistus species are all stunning visually.

Even bad days are interesting when rain splashes off the giant leaves of Gunnera tinctoria and wind rustles through a tunnel of whispering bamboos. With its colourful borders, waterside plants and fruiting trees, the Secluded Garden is the one planting at Kew which most closely resembles private gardens.

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