Garden News | January 2026
Wow, so that was 2025. Another year has completely flown by, and it probably feels like that to us because of how busy we’ve been here in the garden once again.
As we enter the new year, and what will be my sixth since taking over as Head Gardener, now seems like the perfect time to look back on some of the developments and achievements we had in the garden during 2025 and also look forward to some of the exciting horticultural plans we have for 2026…
To say 2025 was a busy time for everyone at Leonardslee would be a huge understatement! I thought I’d review the last year, season by season, and take you through just some of the work the gardeners been involved with. People often say to me that winter must be a bit of a down time when working in a garden, but that is simply not true. We’ve just as busy at that time of the year as any other in fact. I won’t go into the day to day winter tasks such as leaf clearing, mulching, paths repairs etc and will instead concentrate on some of the new projects we’ve tackled. Last winter we were busy behind the scenes creating a new area in the basement of the house to grow microherbs and mushrooms for the chefs in the Interlude restaurant for example. We also moved our propagation and plant nursery out of the Alpine House building and designed a new specialist growing space there instead for less hardy plants such as succulents and tender rhododendrons.
We were also managing wildlife habitats and constructed a hibernacula for instance to provide an underground space for reptiles etc to harbour over the winter months. Up in the Deer Park we uncovered a new area we’ve been informally calling ‘Redwood Alley’ as it winds inbetween a number of huge redwood trees that had become overgrown and lost behind a wall of invasive Rhodododendron ponticum (the vigorous purple-flowered shrub you often see growing along the sides of roads). Many of the team attended a restoration pruning course at Millais Nurseries last winter as part of our membership to the RHS RCM (Rhododendron, Camellia and Magnolia) Group. We started to put that into practice last February and will continue the work again this coming year. We’ll be tackling large rhodies and camellias that have become too large, are blocking views or whose flowers are simply too high to enjoy. In the formal gardens last winter we carried out a large landscaping project, creating a new stepped terrace below Leonardslee House that is now fully open for our visitors to enjoy. We also set up our dedicated Instagram account for the gardens. If you haven’t visited it already, please follow @growingleonardslee to see all the horticultural highlights and updates throughout the year ahead.
As the garden moved into spring and really started to come to life again, so a new set of projects began for the garden team. We set up our new propagation unit in our compound at the south end of the estate for instance, with two large polytunnels, a standing out area, a shade tunnel and a quarantine enclosure forming the bulk of the space. This year we plan to add cold frames and nursery beds too. Other spring developments included a new Herb Garden, complete with greenhouse and raised beds constructed from wood off the estate. This area sits below the main house for the Interlude chefs to harvest from. A new stepped entrance to Camellia Grove down in the valley was constructed and the planting of a new orchard space near the wallaby enclosure took place that also includes bee hives and a wildflower meadow. We also entered a number of flower shows last spring including the RHS RCM Early Spring Show at Wisley where you might remember we won two trophies and multiple 1st Place certificates. We also hosted the RHS Centenary Show here at Leonardslee which went so well that we’ve been asked to host the Wessex Show here in May.
As Leonardslee basked in another very hot summer, so our focus shifted again. We carried out a number of long overdue major hedge reductions near Camellia Walk and the Courtyard for example. We completed the first phase of work on our two new ponds near the garden compound, harvested over 26L of honey from our new bee hives, finished planting up our new Exotic Border near the Play Area, installed new fences to improve the management of our deer in the Deer Park, laid a series of dead hedges at the lakes and completed the next phase of our archaeological project that will hopefully come to fruition this year. We also installed a kingfisher nesting box as well as a number bat and owl boxes across the estate as we improved our wildlife habitats. The garden team went on training days at the Knepp Estate and Sheffield Park where we learnt about sustainable gardening and waterlily management. Our rare rhododendrons that form our National Collection were also receiving extra attention last summer as we carried out the next phase of air layering on them. This is where you make a small incision to the bark of a healthy young stem, apply a rooting compound to the wound and then wrap it in moist sphagnum moss and seal the whole thing in a black plastic bag, tied at each end. Simply wait at least 12 months, or more likely 18 months, and then sever the branch once you confirm the roots have filed the moss. Hey presto, a brand new plant! Simple! If you’re feeling adventurous, why not try this at home?
Autumn is probably my favourite season in a garden, and a lot of that is due to the exciting work that us gardeners are able to undertake at that time of year. A raft of new planting schemes were introduced in the formal areas towards the end of last year including a revamp of the Herbaceous Beds, interesting additions to the Rock Garden borders, new schemes near the Clocktower Café and in the various beds and borders below there plus a new design for the large corner border near the Red House building that involved the removal of an unwanted Lonicera nitida hedge. We’re excited to see how these develop over the coming years. Other Autumn projects included the introduction of a new digital system for surveying and mapping our trees across the garden, the planting of over 20,000 new bulbs and a new injection system employed to tackle the discovery of a large area of mature Japanese knotweed. Our new Apprentice Tommy joined the team in Autumn and very excitingly we won a Gold medal at the first time of asking in the Britain in Bloom awards.
So all in all, a very busy time during 2025 then! And as we look ahead to some of the planned projects for 2026 it bodes to be another very full year. We’ll be adding further planting schemes in the garden including a collection of unusual foliage rhododendrons along the Accessible Path behind the Rock Garden and an exotic-inspired border above Daffodil Lawn for example. Time and resources permitting, we also hope to add at least one winter walk in the garden to extend the season of interest in the garden at that time of year. Our raised beds near the shop will also get an overhaul in the spring and we plan to add a collection of ‘Little Bird’ dwarf rhododendrons along the Hydrangea Path below the café where we also hope to incorporate a stumpery element to the design.
We added a new specimen to our Rhododendron national Collection in 2025 (R. ‘Snow Queen’ which was introduced by the Loder family here in 1926 and is planted on Daffodil Lawn). We have plans this year to further add to our collection, including plants that are being grown for us from cuttings and layers from other gardens including High Beeches and The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. We’ll carry out further lichen, fungi and wildflower surveys with the expert help from a number of outside groups and bodies. We’ll continue our restoration pruning to open up lost views, add a series of coloured way markers across the estate to aid visitor navigation and exploration and we’ll be opening up the first phase of our Hillside Garden area which is currently closed to the public but which a group of woodland volunteers have been working hard to open up for a couple of years now. I’ll let you know when this phase in complete but we hope that it will be in time for spring 2026 as we’ve planted a number of important rhododendrons in that area that we’d like you all to see.
When you add in our usual work plan tasks of maintaining our 240-acre Grade I listed garden and estate, it looks as if 2026 is going to be just as busy and exciting as 2025 was, so I hope to see you here in the garden again soon. Happy new year to all of our members and visitors from the garden team here at Leonardslee.
Jamie Harris
Head Gardener
