In 2007, a consortium led by The King, purchased Dumfries House Estate and its contents, preserving the estate and one of the finest collections of Georgian Scottish and English furniture for the nation.
Nestled at the bottom of the nursery is a private chapel built by owner Peter Stott for his wedding to his wife, Jo, in 2014.
The garden’s bee boxes and insect hotels, made from offcuts of old estate timber and built by hand by the garden team, now house mason and leafcutter bees that help pollinate the borders.
While the ‘folly’ was being built, the remains of a previous small building were found hidden under the grass, recalling local tales that many years ago a roadway ran through and stagecoaches once changed their horses here.
Among many treasures is a Colletia paradoxa, the ‘Anchor Plant’, whose spiny branches and remarkable scent have intrigued visitors for generations, reflecting the garden’s rich and varied horticultural history.
A wide variety of fasciated, contorted, and variegated plants – trees, shrubs, and perennials – are cultivated throughout the Red, Yellow, White, and Blue Gardens, and even near the entrance to the visitor centre.
The RHS is the UK’s gardening charity, helping people and plants to grow - nurturing a healthier, happier world, one person and one plant at a time.
