Hidcote

Hidcote is a world-famous Arts and Crafts-inspired garden nestled in a North Cotswold hamlet, created by passionate plantsman and talented designer, Major Lawrence Johnston. Covering an area of 10.5 acres the garden takes visitors on a journey through intimate formal areas revealing a different atmosphere or new vista at every turn. Smaller, more formal garden ‘rooms’ near the house, give way to more natural areas that blend in with the surrounding countryside further away. There is a central axis running from East to West and another North to South, forming corridors off which the garden rooms can be found, each one with its own character and personality.

Using Hidcote as a ‘blank canvas’, Lawrence Johnston designed the garden in phases from 1907 to 1938. He furnished borders with newly discovered plants and exotic rarities gathered during plant collecting expeditions from around the world. As a member of both the Garden Society and the Royal Horticultural Society, Johnston and the name ‘Hidcote’ have become synonymous with the best forms of many plants, such as Hypericum ‘Hidcote’, Lavandula ‘Hidcote’ and Rosa ‘Lawrence Johnston’.

Major Johnston was also described by many as the ‘most generous’ of hosts and gardeners, sharing seeds and cuttings with friends, delighting in garden parties, and even opening the doors to Hidcote to the public on a few days each year.

In 1948 Lawrence Johnston gifted Hidcote, now a Grade I listed garden, to the National Trust, becoming the first garden-only property in the Trust’s care. Using contemporary photographs and accounts to guide our vision, we continue to care for it for future generations to enjoy.