Jane said she didn’t want a present for her birthday – I had one planned, honest!  Instead, she wanted to go on a trip to Sussex and, specifically, to Rye.  She booked a hotel there and sorted out an itinerary of things to do.  Part of that itinerary was to visit Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent on the way.

We had visited the garden early in our relationship, a few decades ago.  I barely remember that.  Even when confronted with the garden this time, I could only recall the old brick buildings not the walled gardens.  Jane thinks we went in a different season to this time; perhaps that’s why I don’t really remember the garden but my memory is like a sieve these days (as our local pub-quiz regularly demonstrates.)  Anyway, the gardens looked beautifully cared for and uniformly splendid.

The garden has developed considerably over the last century.  It was transformed from the 1930’s onwards by Vita Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson, until their deaths in the 1960s.  In 1967 the garden, castle and associated farm were taken over by the National Trust.  Since then, Harold Nicholson’s grandson and his wife, the famous gardener, Sarah Raven, developed the garden. 

More recently, the original ideas to develop a Greek-style garden in one of its parts have been re-implemented under the guidance of yet another famous gardener, Dan Pearson, to create an area called the Delos Garden.  We visited on a gorgeous sunny day with some real heat in the air and the Delos Garden was one of the great highlights of our visit.  It really did have a Mediterranean feel.

^{The Delos Garden}

Elsewhere, in one of the several walled garden quadrants, was the White Garden.  Here too, the timing of our visit was perfect.  Not only was the sun shining but the old, huge, central climbing rose (rosa mulliganii) is apparently only in full bloom briefly and yet we saw its lovely blossom at its peak.

^{The White Garden}

We spent well over an hour meandering around the garden, investigating all its nooks and crannies.  Then we retraced many of our steps to take another look.  The variety and density of the planting is amazing.  Every time I thought: ‘ooh I haven’t seen one of this or that species of shrub or flower’, one would turn up around the next corner.  In all directions, the colours and sheer health of the plants was breathtaking.

To cap the visit, I ventured up to the top of the castle for an aerial view of the garden.  In a way, I wished I had done this at the start.  That way, the layout of the garden would have been clearer from the start.  But perhaps that would have detracted in some way from the excitement I got in moving through an arch or turning a corner as I had moved through the sections of the garden.  Either way, the views from the top of the castle were as spectacular as expected.

We were so fortunate to see the gardens on such a beautiful day.  Surprisingly, there was not a huge number of visitors.  The layout of the garden into walled sections also helped to give a feeling of seclusion and nowhere felt crowded. 

The entrance cost may be a deterrent for many (£15/adult).  Again, we are so lucky in that we were both given lifetime National Trust Membership by my parents when we were married.  It was an extravagant gift but one of the best value and valued ones we have ever received – the cost of life membership now is eyewatering.

We had had another lovely day courtesy of that gift and the good work of the National Trust.  It’s a really special garden and well worth a visit – especially in June.  We drove on to Rye with a bounce in our hearts.