This garden highlights how, when designed properly, ‘less’ can be incredibly effective. Designed around a large water feature containing four cast bronze statue fountains by Lily Sawtell, this area does have a formal feel and the stone seats and balustrade give it a distinctive Italianate atmosphere. In summer the surround is a mass of scarlet as these beds are planted with just one variety of rose, the David Austin-bred Rosa 'Sophy’s Rose', edged with Lavandula angustifolia ‘Melissa Lilac’.
The knotted hedging (previously planted with box which contracted box blight) has recently been replaced with Lavandula angustifolia ‘Arctic Snow’ and Berberis thunbergii ‘Atropurpurea Nana’.