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Garden Tour



The garden at Apple Court has been created since 1988 in the abandoned walled kitchen garden of Yeatton House, which lies just to the south of us. It extends to just over one acre and is situated in rich farmlands between the New Forest and the Solent, some 10m above sea level. The soil is a stiff, neutral loam.
The dwelling, which lies in the south-west corner of the garden, was originally the apple store for Yeatton House. In the 1950s part was converted into a squash court, hence Apple Court. In the 1960s it was converted into a dwelling.
The garden was designed as a series of interlocking areas each of which was intended to create a distinct visual impression and to have a microclimate well suited to the particular plants we intended to grow in each. The form of the garden was partly dictated by the need to break the force of the coastal winds, the sea being less than a mile away.
The aim throughout has been to create a garden in which different interests succeed each other through the year. The season starts with snowdrops and hellebores, followed by pulmonarias and peonies. The Hosta Walk comes into its own in April and is followed by the Daylily Garden which holds centre stage until the grasses take over through August and into winter.
The garden contains many collections of hemerocallis, hostas, grasses, rhodeas, woodwardias and ferns, with many variegated and specialist perennials. These can be seen in various parts of the garden. An annual contribution is made to the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. The garden is also opened from March to September, Friday, Saturday, Sundays and Bank Holidays on behalf of the National Gardens Scheme.

The Nursery was originally the frameyard where seeds were raised in frames and grown on before being set out in the garden. It is always a degree or two warmer than the garden itself. Of particular interest here are some Magnolia relatives growing against the south-facing wall including

1. The Lime Walk
1. The Lime Walk looking west from Pear Circus into fields in distance.

Pleached red-twigged limes frame borders designed to be colourful every month of the year. It is here that the main collections of snowdrops and hellebores are to be found, as well as pulmonaria, followed later in the season by penstemons and ending with Kaffir lilies, colchicums and Michaelmas daisies. A pair of topiary peacocks sculpted in yew at the west end of these borders, dominate the entrance to the garden.
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2. The Pear Circus
The garden is designed along two colour axes, the cool blue/pink/mauve tones running east-west, the hot red/yellow/orange/tones running north/south. The greys of the four weeping pears, Pyrus salicifolia underplanted with cotton lavender, in the Pear Circus separate these two axes and prevent colours clashing.
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3. The Rope Walk
So called because rustic poles support swags of rope along which grow climbing roses and a variety of viticella clemetis. Behind these borders in which ornamental grasses are grown in combination with perennials selected, like the grasses, for their structure rather than their colour qualities.
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4. The Gold & Silver Hosta Walks
Here pergolas cast shade on borders of hostas, while adjacent hedges provide wind shelter. The pillars were built from bricks dug up from the garden. In the southern end we grow mainly hostas with white varigation or blue foliage, in the northern end gold hostas and those with yellow variegation.
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5. The Gold & Silver Hosta Walks
5. The Gold & Silver Hosta Walks
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6. The Wisteria Seat
The antique seat surrounded by scented planters with the wisteria as a background.
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7. The White Garden
This consists of a central oval lawn surrounded by a gravel path and an ellipse of pleached hornbeam beneath which white-flowered or foliage plants are seen against a dark background of yew, the intention being to create the illusion that the plants are lit from above. Particular treasures here include Eucryphia lucida 'Variegata'. Weinmannia trichosperma, Catalpa ducloxii 'Variegata', Aralia elata 'Variegata' and some rare white variegated grasses. The two trees at the entrance are Cornus alternifolia 'Argentea'.
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8. and 9. The Salmon and Apricot Borders
Seamingly the most difficult colour borders to create. Spectacular oriental poppies, lupins, and cape figwort, planted with contrasting lime-green and purple foliage, are at their best in May, followed by daylillies and roses in flower until early Autumn.
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10. The New Grassery
A grassery is a collection of grasses whose garden effect derives mainly from contrasting grasses with different panicle forms, though over the years other elements have crept in. It is at its most ravishing in September and October.
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11. The Spring Border
Designed to be at its best from late winter till early summer, this contains some rare hellebores and a collection of small-leafed hostas, amonst the most notable of which are 'Grand Tiara' and 'Crepe Suzette'. A superb specimen Cornus controversa 'Variegata' lends height and drama to this area.
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12. The Winter Garden
Planted to give colour in the darkest days of Winter, this area contains bark and foliage that attains it's richest colouring in winter, Cornus 'Midwinter Sun', several Bergenia cultivars whose leaves turn red in winter, as well as several grasses whose skeletons provide a different sort of interest in winter.
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13. The Cottage Garden seen from Conservatory
Traditional small cottage garden, shaded by ancient apple trees underplanted with hellebores, hostas and aquilegia.
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14. The Fern Path
In the narrow space between two hedges, and each side of a herring-bone brick path we are growing a collection of our favourite ferns, interspersed with occasional clumps of Rohdea japonica for contrast. Shade is provided by Stewartias.
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15. The Daylily Garden
The Daylily Garden is contained in a rectangle of purple beech hedge and consists of four box-edged, colour-themed beds (red, yellow/white, amber/copper, and melon) inside, and two beds (pink and purple) outside to the north, with a raised, rectangular bed of ornamental grasses at the centre.
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16. The Mimosa Border
This border is situated to the right of the Summerhouse at the foot of a south wall where it is possible to grow a number of otherwise tender, sub-tropical plants. We grow several mimosas, including Acacia rubida, A. melanoxylon, A. longifolia, A. retinoides and A. mearnzii; the spectacular South American yucca-like Beschorneria yccoides, Dasylirion acrotrichon, Crinum 'Cape Dawn'.

A number of feather palms have survived here for some years including Jubea chilensis and Butia capitata.
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17. The Banana & Subtropical Border
This border is situated to the left of the Summerhouse at the foot of a south wall where it is possible to grow a number of otherwise tender, sub-tropical plants of which the most remarkable are two Banksias, B. saxicola and B. marginata. and its even more spectacular variegated form. A spectacular Cornus Capitata, Bananas, Ginger Lillies and many other rare tropical plants.
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18. Summerhouse, showing 18th century cupola
This is dominated by an avenue of hardy Chusan palms, Trachycarpus fortunei and is designed to look exotic, with clumps of cannas and ginger lilies, agapanthus and watsonias. It now contains a string of three square ponds linked by falling rills.
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19. The Japanese Garden
A small Japanese style garden planted with all native Japanese plants, with a spectacular koi pond and tea house.
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20. Sales Area
We offer a wide selection of our favourite perennials, allbeit in small numbers. If there is a particular plant that you would like to acquire while visiting the garden, please inquire in advance as to its availability.
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