High Beeches Gardens - centenary year 2007
High Beeches Gardens is 27 glorious acres of woodland and water gardens. Listed as outstanding historically, it is full of rare and unusual plants, as well as being home to the best wildflower meadow in the south, the national collection of Stewartia trees and Champion trees.
High Beeches has been in the capable hands of the Bray/Boscawen horticultural dynasty for the last fifty years. Their gardening pedigree is impressive; ancestors having created important gardens at Hatchlands, Tregothnan, Brodick and Penrhyn Castle.
The aim of the family is to select only the finest species – plants and trees from the wild with the most outstanding colour, foliage, form and scent. High Beeches is designed around the dramatic natural landscape, creating a garden of breath-taking beauty, magnificence and tranquillity. Species forms are the ultimate in wild plant gardening and original specimens, collected by famous Victorian plant hunters still thrive at High Beeches today. These species are of immense historical importance being the parents of many hybrid species.
The Brays/Boscawens are experienced plantspeople and have exhibited for many years, winning prizes and awards including an RHS Gold Medal. They have been RHS judges and have travelled to many countries on plant hunting expeditions, including Chile, Bhutan, Nepal and Korea.
The family took over High Beeches from Colonel Giles Loder and High Beeches is the original home of the Loder family. Col. Giles Loder was a passionate plant collector, from the age of 22, acquiring species collected from the wild by men such as Armand David, George Forrest and Ernest Wilson. These men brought back new species from China, Japan, the Americas, and Australia.
The Col. Worked closely with his head gardener, Eric Stockton, for more than forty years, and Eric Stockton shared his knowledge with the Brays/Boscawens for ten years. In those days High Beeches was the ‘Holy Grail’ of the gardening world. People heard rumours, but few were permitted to see the gardens.
