The garden at Standen

Winter walk lined by heathers — An invigorating winter walk at Standen | © National Trust Images / John Miller

Explore the garden at Standen, divided into many outdoor 'rooms', each with its own theme, colours, texture and detail. The 12-acre garden at Standen is almost entirely the creation of a self-taught gardener, Margaret Beale, who was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement.

Winter highlights from Standen's Head Gardener, James Masters

Winter in the garden at Standen is a special time, the winter-flowering camellias bloom through the coldest weather and hollies with red, orange, yellow and white berries add a festive theme. The quarry has snowdrops, snowflakes and crocus and on the Top Terrace there's a beautiful display of winter heathers. At the top of the garden there are outstanding views across the unspoilt High Weald.

Purple beautyberry against a winter landscape of bare branches — The striking beautyberry bush at Standen | © National Trust Images / James Dobson

The Beautyberry Bush

In the Cottage Garden, the Beautyberry – Callicarpa bodinieri - always looks good through the winter with bright purple berries. The birds don’t tend to eat these until all the red, yellow and orange berries have gone. This particular plant was rescued from a bin in 2001 and has flourished in its new home. There is another one on the shelterbelt at the top of the garden, although it is not as large.

Snowdrops

From as early as Christmas, if the weather is warm, there are large amounts of snowdrops around the garden. In recent years we’ve planted thousands of bulbs with help from the Friends of Standen Estate, a volunteer group who help raise money for Standen. Good collections of these can be seen in the Cottage Garden, on the drive, under the rocks, on the farm track and on the steps up to the bothy.

Camellias

Standen has a good collection of autumn and winter flowering camellias, especially in the upper garden. They flower from October until January with delicate flowers surviving even the most challenging winter weather. Many of the varieties are the only ones of their type in the National Trust and come from a local nursery and plant breeder which closed down a few years ago. Almost as soon as these finish, the earliest of the spring flowering camellias start to bloom. One particular highlight is Camellia sasanqua ‘Hugh Evans’ in the Quarry, which is around seventy years old.

Yew trees | © National Trust Images / James Dobson

Conifers

Conifers around the garden look good in winter and were a particular favourite of Margaret Beale. She had a wonderful collection, although many were lost in the Great Storm of 1987. Particular highlights include: • The Mexican Pine on the shelterbelt – Pinus patula- which has very long needles and looks a bit like a monster. • Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans’ on the main lawn, a conifer with winter colour, when it turns from green to purple and brown. • The yew tree on the mulberry lawn, which is actually two trees growing close together. The kitchen wing of the house was shortened from its original design by Philip Webb so that this tree could be preserved. In February the male half of the tree turns yellow with pollen whilst the female half stays green. There is also a significant collection of tall yew trees in the Clemmening at the top of the Garden where the red trunks look amazing in the low winter sun.

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Explore Standen’s garden rooms

Goose Green

Any visit to the garden must start and end at Goose Green, the heart of the garden for a century and more. Three large plane trees dominate this space, surrounded on each side by domestic and rural features – the Kitchen Garden, the old farm buildings, the servants' wing of the house and the medieval farmhouse on a small rise above. Once home to geese, cows and horses, it is now a wonderful place to relax and enjoy these most beautiful of surroundings.

The house terrace and Quarry Garden

Around the house itself is where Margaret showed her real passion for plants, the rarest, most showy and those that were most special to her were planted within a few yards of the door to the garden from the conservatory.

Only the most privileged guests were allowed into this area, which includes the shady and surprising Quarry Garden. It’s so close to the house itself but feels a lifetime away.

Top terrace and rock top walk

The Upper Garden once thickly wooded lost many trees in the Great Storm of 1987, but their replacements, now approaching over 30 years in age, are quickly reclothing the hillside with colours, shapes, textures, scents and sounds.

Here you'll find the most spectacular views across the Medway Valley to Ashdown Forest – virtually unspoiled by any development, save for the 1950s Weir Wood Reservoir, which meanders through the landscape like a river, and is now a well-established part of the scenery.

Further round you’ll find the Bothy, built in 2017 in an area of garden lost for decades to scrub. It too boasts fine views towards the tower of East Grinstead Church and into the intimate landscape of the High Weald.

Family fun

The lower garden is where the family had fun: the Croquet Lawn was – and is – a place for sitting and games.

The Rosery, so recently lost to invasive bamboo, is currently being restored and is the site of the swimming pond where the Beale children used to learn to swim.

The Kitchen Garden

Nearby is the orchard, home to hives of honeybees and many old varieties of apple. Here the grass is left to grow long, allowing wildflowers to flourish including delicate orchids and the diminutive yellow rattle.

The Kitchen Garden is close to the house and originally nearly three acres, almost a quarter of the whole garden. Recently brought back into production after quite some time as private gardens, it's full of a wide range of tasty crops that are supplied to the café throughout the year.