Pick up a booklet at any of England's National Trust properties and you'll find lots of details about the gardens' creators and the properties' development.
An exception is Hidcote, where information is somewhat sparse. The reason is that French-born American Lawrence Johnston (1871-1958) and his mother, Gertrude Winthrop, apparently kept no notes or diaries about what they did in their garden and photographic records are also limited.
What is known is that Mrs Winthrop bought the property in 1907 while her Cambridge-educated son, who became a naturalised Englishman, was an officer in the British Army.
Hidcote's location suggests mother and son knew nothing about gardening for Hidcote sits some 200m above the Vale of Evesham, the flood plain of the River Avon, and despite magnificent views, the soil is chalky and the site very exposed. Most gardeners would have turned and run at the prospect of creating a garden here on the scale Major Johnston did.
The exposed position doubtless led to the decision to hedge areas, creating the series of garden rooms for which Hidcote is famous. Some of the hedges used a mixture of plants ("tapestry" style), while others were yew. Avenues of English beech added more shelter to the property.
The original garden was a fraction of the present one and set in front of the house. By 1910, it encompassed the courtyard and what are now known as the Old Garden, White Garden, Maple Garden, Bathing Pool Garden and the Circle. The layout of these areas, with their Arts and Crafts look, are still recognisable a century later.
The second phase, which began during World War 1, was more classical in approach and included the Stilt Garden, with its pleached hornbeams; the long lawn of the Theatre Garden, with the odd feature of a beech on a dais; and Mrs Winthrop's garden, planted with blue and yellow-flowering plants, a colour scheme that has been retained under the National Trust, which has owned the property since 1948.
For a non-gardener, Maj Johnston learned fast. He liked rhododendrons and overcame the problem of Hidcote's chalky ground by bringing in truckloads of sawdust to create more acid areas on which rhododendrons still grow. More importantly, he appeared to be a natural designer, working out clever solutions to overcome the limitations of Hidcote's awkward contours. Some of these appear to have been influenced by gardens he had seen in Europe and reproduced in a unique way at Hidcote.
By 1930, when it has been suggested the garden was approaching its peak, Hidcote was opened during the summer to support a London charity.
Admission was one shilling (10c) a head (about a 30th of a man's weekly wages), in real terms not much different from the 10 ($20) it now costs to visit.
One of the most comprehensive records of Hidcote also dates from 1930, when H. Avray Tipping, from the prestigious magazine Country Life, wrote a glowing account of the garden and listed many of the plants, some of which, such as Eremurus robustus, continue to be grown. Roses were well represented in 1930s and these still form a major part of Hidcote's summer display, but one missing today is Prince of Bulgarie, which has vanished from cultivation.
Johnston moved into collecting - there is a record of him gathering a blood lily (Scadoxus multiflorus syn. Haemanthus katherinae) from Mt Kilimanjaro and growing the tender bulb in one of the many shelters at Hidcote. He also collected numerous trees, particularly from the mid-1930s.
By the end of World War 2, Major Johnston had decided to move permanently to his summer home at Menton, in the French Riveria, so in 1948 - after years of deliberation - he donated Hidcote to the National Trust. He died in France in 1958 but his English legacy lives on in the Gloucestershire countryside.
See it
• Hidcote is near Mickleton village, 7km northeast of Chipping Campden, and 2km east of the B4632 off the B4081.The garden is within easy reach of Stratford Upon Avon.
• The garden is open from mid-March to mid-December but closed on Thursdays and Fridays except from late June to late August, when it is open every day.
• Checking the website at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hidcote to confirm opening days and times is recommended.
