Boris opens new winter garden
18 March 2011
A formerly neglected corner of Battersea Park in London has been given a new lease of life with a Winter Garden designed by garden designer Dan Pearson. The garden was officially opened in early March by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
Featuring more than 300 trees and 22,000 perennials, and with thousands of spring-flowering bulbs to be added this autumn, the garden is designed to offer colour and interest from leaf fall to bud burst. It is a living memorial to Elaine Hodges OBE, founder member and secretary of the Friends of Battersea Park, whose £10,000 bequest provided the ‘seed’ funding for the project.
The garden provides the park with a space that peaks when many other features in the Victorian landscape – such as bedding plants, roses and subtropical schemes – are at rest.
A gently meandering path leads through the 0.67ha (1.66 acre) garden, beginning at a naturalistic grove of ‘Silver Ghost’ birch interplanted with crimson and scarlet Chaenomeles (Japanese quince) and witch hazel. The path then opens out into a grassy clearing before leading on to the main focal point, an elegant oval of multi-stemmed Parrotia persica (Persian ironwood) and Westmoreland boulders. Here two sculptural floating benches offer a chance to pause and enjoy the scent from nearby Viburnum and Lonicera.
Throughout, plants have been chosen to offer a steady succession of colour, from autumn-flowering camellias and fiery Hamamelis (witch hazel) and Cornus (dogwood), to hellebores, snowdrops, winter-flowering cherries and early bulbs.
‘It has been a fantastic opportunity to create something interesting in a great park,’ says Dan Pearson. ‘There aren’t many winter gardens throughout the country, but winter shows some plants at their very best, and the Battersea Park Winter Garden has been planted to ensure that there’s always something happening in the darkest months.’
Above: Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Friends of Battersea Park Chairman Frances Radcliffe, and Steve Bunn of the RCA Sculpture School unveil the plaque commemorating the garden’s official opening.