Malverleys Garden : Plant Database

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Malverleys Gardens

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The Gardens at Malverleys

Malverleys is an English Flower Garden that has been extensively developed and planted over the last decade. The gardens span over ten acres and have been designed by the head gardener, Mat Reese, alongside the owners.

The style and design have been inspired by prominent English flower gardens such as Great Dixter and influenced by the iconic writings of Christopher Lloyd, William Robinson and Vita Sackville-West.

The garden is laid out into ‘rooms’ separated by yew hedging, and each of the garden rooms has its own distinctive atmosphere and planting scheme. There are also exquisite long borders, an abundantly planted terrace garden, a stumpery with ferns and usual shade plants, and prolific flower meadows.

The private gardens at Malverleys are open for tour groups by appointment only.
Please email garden@malverleys.co.uk to enquire about availability.

explore the gardens

The Gardens

The House Border

The House Border

The House Border runs parallel to the house and is one of the most intensively managed gardens at Malverleys. The border is planted thick with tulip bulbs in the autumn and boasts a spectacular display of colour when in bloom in the spring. The tulips are followed by early flowering perennials and the display continues through the summer well into autumn. Summer bulbs, such as alliums, with later flowering perennials, shrubs and roses pick up when the tulips finish. Annual plants along with tender perennials keep the show going until hit by hard frost. The framework of the shrubs can be fully appreciated through the colder months and pockets of winter-flowering bulbs at their feet ensure interest in this border throughout the year.

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The East Border

The East Border runs perpendicular to the house and is broken up by two sets of rounded steps leading from the Cool Garden and Woodland Garden. This mixed border was installed to compliment the house border and to soften the boundary between the main lawn and the areas of the garden beyond the house. Much like the house border, this garden features a brilliant display of tulips in spring, and a colourful mix of early perennials, annuals, and bulbs throughout the year.

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The East Border

The Terrace

The Terrace

The Terrace is constructed of a mixture of cobblestones and York paving slabs and was inspired by the Thyme Walk at Highgrove. Creeping Thyme, self-sown plants and small bulbs grow in between the gaps in the stones and soften the tone of the hard landscaping. Parallel borders run the length of the terrace and feature flowering bulbs, perennials and annuals which are planted amongst small shrubs. Larger shrubs and climbers adorn the walls of the house. The display is colourful and rich in texture and scent. The terrace is equally beautiful while admiring the intricate details of the planting or when viewed as a whole.

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The Wedding Ring Border

The Wedding Ring Border was installed to replace a putting green and has earned its name for being the location of the head gardener's lost wedding ring. The mixed planting contains trees that are pollarded regularly to maintain overall size and vivid leaf colour, as well as roses, smaller shrubs and floriferous perennials and annuals. This border has a long season of interest, is rich in colour and texture, and sets the tone for the Terrace.

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The Wedding Ring Border

The Woodland Walk

The Woodland Walk

The Woodland Walk creates a comfortable connection to the house from the other areas of the garden. There is a large array of plants on display from the huge to the tiny. Towering Douglas Fir and Holm Oak are among the trees that create a canopy providing shelter and cool shade to the more delicate plants at their feet. The York stone path zig-zags through the space and a few steps make the level changes feel quite comfortable. The planting is varied around every corner and the views change considerably through the seasons, and remarkable plants can be found in each of the nooks and crannies.

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The Cool Garden

The Cool Garden is surrounded by yew hedging on all sides and is discreetly nestled amongst the other garden rooms. This garden is divided into four beds with a brick path bordering a round central pool, and a large copper bowl is elevated above the water. The calm, tranquil atmosphere in this space is quite distinctive from the other gardens beyond the hedge walls. The Cool Garden features plants in gentle, pastel shades and the abundance of flowers are the main focus of this garden. The use of foliage is also carefully considered. Purple, silvery- grey, or blue-green leaves work well in this space, but also shrubs and trees with fine, delicate foliage contribute to the serene atmosphere.

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The Cool Garden

The Stumpery

The Stumpery

The Stumpery is a woodland folly constructed out of a collection of old tree stumps positioned at dramatic angles. To provide a high-humidity environment, a misting irrigation system has been installed in the tree canopy above. This provides moisture for the plants growing in and around the tree stumps, but also adds a certain drama to the woodland atmosphere. The planting features a large variety of ferns, including picturesque tree ferns, as well as unusual shrubs and rare perennials.

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The Hot Garden

The Flame Borders (also called The Hot Garden) feature two parallel mixed borders planted with bright, hot-coloured flowers and foliage, creating an energetic and enlivening atmosphere. The borders are edged with York stone slabs which form a neat separation between the beds and the fresh green lawn that runs between them. The mixed borders contain many shrubs with interesting, sometimes brightly-coloured foliage. Often the colour of the foliage is most intense when the leaves begin to emerge in spring, and their hues change and develop through the growing season. Bright and boldly-coloured flowers make a big impact and offer many different shapes, textures and colours to admire. One can simply admire the overall effect created by the mass of colour in this garden, or take time to get closer to appreciate the interest and features of the individual flowers and leaves.

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The Hot Garden

The Pond Garden

The Pond Garden

The Pond Garden features a central large, rectangular pool edged with York stone paving. The water is home to fish and water-loving plants including waterlilies, rushes, and water soldier. The borders surrounding the pond are mixed in planting and include small trees, conifers, a wide variety of shrubs, large and small perennials, and colourful flowering bulbs. The diverse borders and trees in the parkland beyond create beautiful reflections in the water.

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The Cloister Garden

The Cotswold stone walls of the Cloister Garden are topped with curved York stone slabs and ornate Coade Stone Pineapples. The atmosphere in the Cloister Garden is both tranquil and dramatic with a huge array of fine detail to be observed and appreciated. The walls are adorned with climbing and rambling roses which scent the air during the summer months. The central rill is accentuated with slender arching fountains and planted on either side with multi-stem flowering cherries. At the far end of the rill is a tufa niche with a sculpture of Neptune Calming the Waves, based on a famous work in the Louvre, also in Coade Stone.

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The Cloister Garden

The White Garden

The White Garden

The White Garden is composed of several lusciously planted beds framed by yew hedging. Four square pools with gentle, subtle fountains are situated amongst the flower beds which are brimming with bulbs, perennials, annuals, shrubs and trees. The colour pallet in this garden is limited to shades of green, grey and white, although the occasional pale pink- flowered plant which highlights and compliments the white and silver tones is allowed. This limited use of colour places emphasis on texture and shape in the garden, and often draws attention to the foliage as much as the flowers. The structure of the plants is more visible in the winter when there is not as much foliage present and the silvery leaves of the evergreens become more prominent.

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The Spring Garden

The Spring Garden is situated within the walled garden and is tucked away behind the glasshouse. The many beds are edged with flint and feature structural cloud-pruned hornbeam trees. As the name suggests, this area glows in the spring with the jewel-bright flowers of bulbs, perennials and shrubs. However, there is much to see during the summer and autumn months, and a collection of scented daphnes perfume the air through the winter. Trained shrubs and climbers adorn the bordering wall and narrow, meandering paths lead through the garden and ultimately into the White Garden.

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The Spring Garden

The Walled Garden

The Walled Garden

The Walled Garden encompasses many diverse features and plantings. Included in the space is an ornate glasshouse, also a white garden, a spring garden, a tennis court, lavender beds, and a kitchen garden complete with highly decorative fruit cages and paths lined with fruit trees. There is also a prolific cutting border, a peony border and a remarkable laburnum arch that forms the spine of the walled garden and transforms into a tunnel of golden flowers that hum with the sound of bees in late spring. Other seasonal highlights include vast displays of spring-flowering bulbs, blossom on the fruit trees, a plethora of roses during the summer months and the order and abundance of the kitchen garden. The show continues through the autumn, and winter-flowering bulbs and shrubs ensure there is always something to admire in this space.

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The Topiary Meadow

The Topiary meadow compliments the approach to the ornate chicken house and features many yew topiary figures. A Euonymus alatus 'Compactus' hedge turns a glowing shade of brilliant red in autumn. The view of the Topiary Meadow changes dramatically with every season.

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The Topiary Meadow

The Exotic Garden

The Exotic Garden

The Exotic Garden is quite separate from the other sections of the garden and is at its finest during late summer into mid-autumn. Once you enter the Exotic Garden it is easy to feel you have left the outside world behind. The space is surrounded by walls of yew hedging and the beds are brimming with plants specifically chosen to create an exotic, tropical atmosphere. Bold, brightly coloured leaves and flowers are abundant and towering, statuesque plants help to create the feeling of meandering through a jungle. The use of such conspicuous, pronounced plants makes the space feel much larger than it is. Large leaves draw the eye and often reach over the paths making it impossible to overlook them as you move from one area to the next. Brightly coloured flowers are present in a huge range of size and shape and contrast well with their neighbouring large leaves.

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The Parterre

The Parterre was installed in 2017 to replace a lawn and path. Tall yew cones, represent the twelve Apostles and are surrounded by billowing hydrangeas. Each bed is enclosed with box hedging. The proportions of this space were designed using the ratio for a 'Golden Rectangle', which, according to the Greeks, is the most aesthetically pleasing.

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The Parterre

The Stream Area

The Stream Area

The Stream Area is sheltered by a canopy of large oak trees and the main focal point is the meandering stream that dissects this area of the garden. The beds at the water's edge feature mixed planting and contain shrubs, perennials and bulbs that will thrive in the dappled shade. In addition to the oaks are flowering trees that contribute to the serene atmosphere of this secluded corner of the garden.

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The Thicket

The Thicket is a densely planted mixed border that lines the corridors to the Pond Garden and the Cool Garden. By using tall shrubs and trees in places, the Thicket helps to separate this area of the garden from the pastures beyond and helps create a more enclosed, intimate atmosphere.

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The Thicket

The Grounds

The Grounds

The Grounds encompass all areas of the gardens at Malverleys that are not in their own defined garden. This includes the parkland trees, as well as the trees, bulbs and shrubs that are planted between the garden areas and in the lawns.