Relax in the garden at Packwood this spring

Spring at Packwood

Spring is a wonderful time at Packwood with plenty of interest throughout. 

In March the gardens become awash with bright yellow daffodils and the best place to find them is along the roadside verges and a thick carpet lines the floor in the orchard.

The primrose bank will be in full bloom on the outer southern edge of the Kitchen garden and the hellebores are showing their cream and purple faces in the double herbaceous borders. If you are lucky and the weather keeps mild you may see; echium pininana with its outrageously long ‘borage like’ blue and pink flower spike and melianthus major (honey bush) with its unusual brownish crimson to deep brick-red long flowers that last made their appearance in the garden at Packwood in 2013.

The Yew Garden

According to legend the yew trees at Packwood represent the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ and are over 350 years old. We have started a phased programme of rejuvenation to secure the future of this ancient and iconic topiary garden. 

The Yew Gardens here at Packwood are very fragile and sometimes have to be closed to protect them.

Outdoor tapestries

A spectacular array of flowers adorn the borders at Packwood, creating a wonderfully rich feast for the eyes - the perfect accompaniment to the beautiful tapestries inside. Packwood's flamboyant flower borders, renowned for their distinctive ‘mingled’ style has evolved through the hands of successive head gardeners. This ‘mingled’ style, which is labour intensive and requires a high level of skill, consists of small groups or single plants being repeated at intervals along the border creating a vivid tapestry of plants crammed closely together.

The Kitchen Garden
The current Kitchen Garden owes much to the vision of the gardening team and a band of dedicated volunteers. Vegetables are planted in rows in beds around a central circular pool. Traditional rotation of crops is observed for best results and the produce is often to be found on the menu of Packwood’s café.

Discover more about the Kitchen Garden at Packwood.

Spring highlights

The main garden areas come alive in April when the tulips start to bloom. In the Yellow Border ‘Golden Apeldorn’ tulips are planted with mustard ‘Cloth of Gold’ wallflowers. On the Raised Terrace red ‘Ad Rem’ tulips are planted with ‘Blood Red’ and ‘Fireking’ wallflowers to add a welcome splash of colour to the gardens.

The sunken garden is also well worth a look for its newly planted succulents and the purple ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ perennial wallflowers all growing out of the crushed brick. 

Further afield, under the oak trees, lurk delicate yellow dogs tooth violets with their sulphur-yellow nodding flowers and a few have found their way into some of the borders.