“The flowers love the house, they try to come in. The golden flowered great St. Johns wort pushes up between the flags in the porch, it has peeped up between the skirting and the flags inside the porch place before now. And the old lilac bush that blew down had its roots under the parlour floor, when they lifted the boards. Houseleek grows on the window sills and ledges; wisteria climbs the wall; clematis chokes the spout’s casings. Wall flowers and cabbage roses in season; rosemary and blue gentian, and earliest to flower the red pyrus Japanese quince—but nothing more sweet than the old pink cabbage rose that peeps in at the small paned windows."
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix learned to observe plants and insects with an artist’s eye for detail. Beatrix studied fungi at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and she produced hundreds of detailed botanical drawings and investigated their cultivation and growth. By 1896, she had developed her own theory of how fungi spores reproduced and wrote a paper, ‘On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae’, which was initially rejected by William Thiselton-Dyer, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens. Undeterred, Beatrix continued her research, and after a year George Massee, a fungi expert who worked at the Kew gardens, agreed to present her paper to the Linnean Society of London, as women at that time were not permitted to do so. Although the paper was never published, scientists still recognize her contribution to mycological research today.
In November 1905, at the age of 39, Beatrix purchased Hill Top Farm, a 34-acre working farm in the rolling hills of Near Sawrey, in England’s northern region of Cumbria.
The house, which dates back to the 1600's, was updated with sash windows in the 1800's and the addition which Beatrix added in 1906. She also moved the driveway and created a long entry garden leading up to the front door of the house. She hired masons to make beds, put in a long flagstone walk and repair the walls. An artisan blacksmith forged decorative iron gates for the walled kitchen garden, which is painted a bright spring green. Carpenters installed a substantial wooden trellis to divide the long entry garden and give height to her design.She used the house as her studio, as a place to house her collection of antique oak furniture, and as lodging for guests.
“My garden is a case of the survival of the fittest always very full of flowers and weeds....Snowdrops and pansies, daffodils and peonies, honesty and bellflowers, phloxes and chrysanthemums bloomed in succession."
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix died in December 22, 1943, leaving 15 farms and over 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust. In accordance with her wishes, Hill Top Farm was kept exactly as it had been when she lived in it, with all the its art, furnishings and needlework. Beatrix was a staunch supporter of the National Trust and followed its principles in preserving her buildings and farms in keeping with the rural culture of the area, and she saved many farms from developers. Today you can visit her house and gardens — its long border and walled kitchen garden. The surrounding countryside looks much as it did when she lived there, thanks to her stewardship and generosity.
Thinking about creating your own Beatrix Potter inspired cottage garden delight, consider the following:
Flowering shrubs were the workhorses of the garden, adding a middle layer to her design. Trees, trellis, and cottage created the largest partitions in her garden, the walls of her outdoor rooms. Smaller flowering plants— perennials, annuals, and bulbs—added drifts of color, like the watercolor paint seeping into the paper in her paintings.
Trees and Shrubs: Ash, Azalea, Boxwood, Cherry, Currant, Crab Apple, Dahlia, Elder, Evergreens, Gooseberry, Japanese Quince, Laurel, Lilac, Mock Orange, Peony, Plum, Privet, Rhododendron, Rowan, Scotch Broom, Scotch Pine, Spirea, Winter Jasmine, Witch Hazel .
Ferns
Flowers: Aconite, Aubrieta, Carnations, Chrysanthemums, Columbine, Crocus, Daffodil, Dianthus, English Bluebells, ,Epiphyllum, Foxglove, Fushia, Garden Phlox, Gentian, Geranium, German Iris, Goatsbeard, Hollyhock, Lady Smock, Lily Meadow Rue, Mignonette, Rose, Snowdrop, Solomon’s Seal, Phlox, Poppy, Primrose, Stock, Thistle, Violet, Yarrow, Zinnia.
Fruit: Blackberry, Currant, Gooseberry, Raspberry, Rhubarb, Strawberry
Herbs: Basil, Lavender, Marjoram, Mint, Rosemary, Sage, Savory, St. John's Wort, Thyme
Vegetables: Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Leek, Pea, Potato, Turnip
Vines: Clematis, Honeysuckle, Wisteria
"I have lots of flowers, I am very fond of my garden, it is a regular old fashioned farm garden, with a box hedge round the flower bed, and moss roses and pansies and black currants & strawberries and peas—and big sagebushes for Jemima, but onions always do badly. I have tall white bell flowers I am fond of, they are just going over, next there will be phlox; and last come the daisies & chrysanthemums. Then soon after Christmas we have snowdrops, they grow wild and come up allover the garden & orchard, and in some of the woods."
Beatrix Potter
Want to learn more about Beatrix and her love of the garden and its influence on her stories and characters?
If you said yes, check out "Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children's Tales" by Martha McDowell. The book explores the origins of Beatrix Potter’s love of gardening and plants and shows how this passion came to be reflected in her work. It is a delightful and charming read!
The book begins with a gardener’s biography, highlighting the key moments and places throughout her life that helped define her. Next, follow Beatrix Potter through a year in her garden, with a season-by-season overview of what is blooming that truly brings her gardens alive. The book culminates in a traveler’s guide, with information on how and where to visit Potter’s gardens today.
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