A family connection has led to the creation of a Florence Nightingale Garden in England. Gillian Vine reports.
Florence Nightingale is not a name usually associated with gardening but at Claydon Estate, in Buckinghamshire, the celebrated English nurse is commemorated in a garden planted to mark the centenary of her death.
Claydon was familiar to Florence Nightingale who, it is said, was courted by Harry, 2nd Baronet Verney. Florence introduced him to her elder sister, Frances, and the couple married in 1858. Florence was a regular visitor to Claydon, which must have been a blissful escape from the horrors of the Crimean War.
Initially dubious about Florence's career choice, Lady Verney eventually swung behind her sister, support that undoubtedly helped when Florence set up her London nursing school in 1860, four years after the war ended.
The Verney family has owned Claydon since 1620 but the house - which is open to visitors - is mainly late 18th century and is famous for its ornate rococo interiors, intricate wood carvings and parquetry staircase. On display are mementoes of Florence and the Crimean War.
Outside, a park surrounds the house. Landscaped by James Sanderson between 1763 and 1776, it includes a lake formed by damming a stream. An arch at the southern end of the lake dates back to this period.
Closer to the house, there are almost 1.5ha of formal gardens. Although weathered brick walls surrounding old gardens are common in England, there can be few as impressive as those at Claydon, with their elegant arches and even a moon gate to maximise views from each "room" to the next.
Redeveloped during the past five years, with the addition of an excellent rose garden in 2006 and the Florence Nightingale Garden in 2010, the garden has superb herbaceous borders and a restored 19th-century greenhouse. As most, if not all, the plants will be familiar to New Zealand gardeners, the "wow factor" comes not from peering at the rare or unusual. The borders' success comes from the lavish hand with which they have been planted: they are wide and filled with clumps of strong-growing perennials backed by roses and climbers on the walls.
The Florence Nightingale Garden lies to one side of the kitchen gardens, with walls on two sides. In style, it is quite formal but its open sides face the park, creating an attractive link between the natural and formal aspects of Claydon.
The kitchen gardens are huge, almost 1ha, a reminder of the need in former times to grow all the fruit and vegetables the household needed. The emphasis now is on heritage fruit trees and chemical-free vegetables, the large plots lightened with flower beds, and immaculate scarcely begins to describe it.
Claydon's gardens are a joint venture between the National Trust and the Verney family and like many trust gardens, produce grown on site is sold and eagerly snapped up by visitors. When we visited Claydon in June, a blackboard listed that day's vegetables for sale, cabbages at 80p ($1.60) and lettuces 1 ($2) each. Plants and cut flowers could also be bought.
Booked to stay that night in a hotel some distance away, we had to content ourselves with a light lunch in the Courtyard Tearooms, where we were assured most of the salad ingredients came from the estate.
Tranquil and relaxing, even when a coach party arrived, Claydon is one of the gems of Buckinghamshire, a county noted for splendid gardens.
If you go
• Claydon, Middle Claydon, near Buckingham, Buckinghamshire MK18 2EX is open from mid-March to the beginning of November, Saturday to Wednesday between noon and 5pm.
• Adult admission is 6.65, child 3.20, family 16.40. Separate admission charges apply for the gardens - March to June is 3.80, July to November 4.30. There is no charge for children under 16.
• For details, see www.claydonestate.co.uk or www.nationaltrust.org.uk/claydonhouse
