Bordering On The Perfect!

The early morning sun starts to light up the Summer Borders at Nymans

With the recent heat wave that we’ve been having down here in Sussex over the last few weeks, nobody can be in any doubt that Summer is well and truly in full swing! And there is no greater symbol of Summer here at Nymans than the blooming beauty of our famous Summer Borders. Found at the heart of the Nymans gardens, within the confines of the Wall Garden, these borders really are the heart of the garden at this time of year. In this blog we’ll take you through the story behind our most iconic and photographed feature – the Summer Borders.

One of our brilliant volunteers gets stuck in with a spot of deadheading

Prior to 1909 the Wall Garden at Nymans was laid out as an orchard until Muriel, daughter of Ludwig Messel, planned and planted a herbaceous border. It is thought that she did this under the tutelage of the esteemed garden writer and neighbour, William Robinson of Gravetye Manor. Sadly, there are no records or plans of what the original border looked like under Muriel’s direction, but by the time the National Trust took over at Nymans in 1953 the borders had moved to a more annual planting display under the design of Anne Rosse (nee Messel) and it is this style of planting that we keep alive today. Although trends in gardening change over the years, and the concept of large groups of annual bedding with a backdrop of perennials may seem old fashioned, there is no doubt that the Summer Borders have a unique place in Nymans’ history.

The Messel family enjoying the fountain in the middle of the Summer Borders…

The borders are formed as a series of three rows. The back row is made up of perennial plants such as Phlox, Echinops, Echinacea and Veronicastrum. These are cut back at the end of the season until they regrow again in all their glory the following year. The front two rows consist of annual plants that are removed and composted at the end of the Summer before being replanted from scratch every year. These range from well known plants such as Calendula and Salvia to some perhaps less common plants like Isotoma and Cuphea. This year for the first time we have also started to add some ornamental grasses to mix for even more added interest.

A view back up from the bottom of the borders

Planning for the summer borders starts in September when a review takes place to evaluate how the plants have performed over the previous summer. This information is then used as a basis to select the annuals that will be sown for the coming years’ display and a detailed plan of the border is made with the colours, textures and forms of plants carefully chosen. Although the process of sowing the seeds (over 80 different varieties) for these annuals in our greenhouses starts as early as the end of January, the job of planting them all out happens in mid May. This year it took around 30 members of staff and volunteers a staggeringly quick four hours to get over 4500 young plants into the soil! In the past that number has been as high as 7000 but we have used bigger blocks, bigger plants and more efficient spacing and positioning this year to try and make the process that much less intensive.

Head Gardener Phil check that the planting process goes to plan

And here is the border virtually fully planted back in May

Nymans prides itself on being a very environmentally aware garden and lots of our visitors have been asking us recently how much watering of the Summer Borders that we have to at this time of year. The answer is surprisingly, not very much! Not wanting to mollycoddle our plants too much, right from seedling stage they are watered very sparingly so that they do not become too accustomed to being wet all the time. Then, when the planting out occurs, the plants are watered in reasonably well so that they bed in nicely. From that point onwards we only water if a plant is showing signs of wilting and not just as a matter of routine. For most plants, when they are put under stress, in this case by not being over-watered, they often tend to flower better anyway. Many of the selections in the borders are drought tolerant while the others soon learn to cope!

Some sections are filled with hot colours…

…while others bloom in gentler, cooler shades

The eye-catching Summer Border display is the product of careful preparation by the team here. In February we head down to the Nymans woods and coppice hazel stems to use as structural supports in the borders later in the year. In the Autumn we often plant lines of over-wintering green manure field beans. These beans have deep roots which improve the soil structure as well as fixing nitrogen into the soil which is released and used by the plants. In the Spring the beans are rotavated into the ground to add organic matter. Mushroom compost is also added to the soil to improve the structure and chicken pellets are used as an organic fertilizer. In recent years, we have even tried carrying out the planting of the annuals to coincide with the lunar calendar. The theory is that water uptake and gravitational pull from the soil is greater in some phases of the moon than at other times.

These Cannas were planted out this week to fill any gaps that had appeared towards the back of the border

Once the border is really doing its thing, all there is left for us to do is deadhead spent blooms to prolong the flowering period, weed out any emerging undesirable seedlings and stake the taller, floppier plants with the aforementioned hazel sticks. All you have to do as a visitor is come and enjoy our Summer Borders for yourselves! They are really starting to peak now and will continue to look fabulous all throughout August so make sure you get along to Nymans soon and check out our displays with your own eyes…