The gardens have been in limbo following the departure last year of Canadian gardeners Sandra and Nori Pope. Since 1986 the couple had transformed the Upper Garden with entirely new planting schemes using more unusual plants, and many that they raised and named themselves, such as Astrantia ‘Hadspen Blood’ and Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’.

Now owner Niall Hobhouse (son of gardener Penelope Hobhouse) plans to give Hadspen, ‘a landmark garden that will provide a platform on which the evolution of planting style can continue to be explored’. He is inviting all-comers to submit designs for the gardens. Details of the competition are due to be posted on Hadspen’s website before Christmas.

Niall said, ‘This is all about finding a new way to make a garden with a design competition squarely aimed at plantsmen and gardeners. They don’t usually get the look-in they deserve. The winner has to be bold, but he or she gets a job of planting the garden they have dreamed of.’

To ensure all entrants have a fair chance and that reputation does not prejudice the judging, submissions will be anonymous. The gardens will be open for two or three days in spring for potential entrants to visit.

Penelope has recently replanted the Lower Garden and the parkland. She lived at Hadspen until 1979, restoring and enlarging the earlier garden, the subject of her first book, The Country Gardener in 1976.

Niall hopes to maintain an established and successful nursery next to the garden but ‘essential investment’ is necessary.
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