East Lambrook Manor, Somerset

 The Home of ‘English Cottage Gardening’ -Margery Fish’s Garden at East Lambrook Manor 

“One of the most important influences on gardening in the 20th century…” 

The garden at East Lambrook Manor is recognised throughout the world as the ‘Home of English Cottage Gardening’, having been created through the 1940s, 50s and 60s by the late gardening icon, Margery Fish.  

Mrs Fish started gardening late in her life but as a novice she showed a great ability for mixing the everyday plants with rarer species, with an eye for colour, form and texture.  Her informal style of planting was unique and her work as an outstanding plants-woman, writer and journalist made her one of the most important influences on gardening in the 20th century. In fact today’s mixed borders are a direct descendant of the style Margery Fish created at East Lambrook Manor. 

Fish created a masterpiece of cottage garden style and she was an extraordinary plants-woman – people visited her gardens not only for inspiration but also to see a vast collection of, what was at the time, rare and unusual plants growing in natural and enchanting surroundings.  She was unstructured in her approach and had no formal training in horticulture, having spent most of her adult life in Fleet Street, London, working for the Daily Mail Newspaper. However, having moved to East Lambrook Manor she became an avid plant collector and toured the country both swapping and acquiring new and exciting varieties of plants.

In the 1950’s commercial plant nurseries were almost unknown and in fact she is almost as famous as a pioneer of commercial plant selling as she is for her natural gardening talent.  

After her death in 1969 Mrs Fish’s relatives lovingly cared for the gardens until 1985 when the gardens passed out of the family to Mr & Mrs Norton.  The Norton's launched a major project to catalogue and re-find many of plants Mrs Fish had originally discovered and cultivated in the gardens. 

Then in 1999 the Williams family took over the gardens, which were ready for an extensive and comprehensive restoration of the whole garden landscape – indeed, this was to be the biggest ‘overhaul’ of these famous gardens since their creation by Mrs Fish. 

Over thirty years after her death, would Margery Fish want to see her garden restored or revived?  She was innovative, creative, instinctive, undaunted, and never intimidated. She was passionate about her plants. Today her garden is a living, breathing organism and as such is never to be stifled or made into a preserved museum exhibit.  However, the gardens remain a ‘living’ monument to her place in horticultural history - this is, after all, the ‘home of English Cottage Gardening. Now the garden team, just as Mrs Fish would have done if she were alive today, are planting new and exciting varieties of plants in the ‘Cottage Garden Style’.  This was and still remains a true ‘plantsmans’ garden.

You can continue to enjoy the Grade I Listed garden at East Lambrook Manor which is packed with rare and unusual plants, wander along the crooked stone paths through a profusion of colour, scent and cottage garden style.  Margery Fish discovered many new varieties of plant, saved others from extinction and broke from the tradition of the formal design, producing a garden which is a delight and an inspiration.  Exciting new and rare plants have been discovered here for over 50 years including Euphorbia ‘Lambrook Gold’, Polemonium ‘Lambrook Mauve’ and, Artemisia ‘Lambrook Mist’, to name but a few. 

In the centre of the gardens, the first floor of the stunning 17^th century stone Malthouse, is dedicated to art exhibitions and forms a spectacular backdrop for the rolling exhibition programme by West Country artists runs throughout the Summer season.

Whatever the weather visitors can enjoy delicious homemade lunches, teas and fine wines, either outside by the scented garden or inside next to the roaring log burner. They use local Somerset farms and growers to supply produce for the food is made by hand in the open kitchen. 

Margery Fish’s famous plant nursery was established in the 50s and is still open and packed with rare and unusual plants and remains a place of pilgrimage for gardeners keen to buy plants.  The colour, structure and scent of the hardy perennials available will provide ideas and suit gardens of all sizes and locations. There is also an extensive selection of hardy geraniums available.