Beyond Falmouth, just outside the village of Mawnan Smith, is one of the most impressive of the Great Gardens of Cornwall: Trebah. Laid out over four decades from the 1830s by the wealthy Quaker Charles Fox and his wife Sarah, the garden was further developed by their daughter Juliet and her husband Edmund Backhouse.
In the 20th century, Trebah passed through the hands of several owners before Tony and Eira Hibbert bought it in 1981 and, after restoring the 26 acres of gardens, opened Trebah to the public in 1987. By the time the Hibberts transferred ownership to the Trebah Garden Trust in 1990, they were welcoming around 49,000 visitors a year; today that number is closer to 100,000.
Overlooking the Helford River, the garden those visitors flock to see is truly spectacular. In part that is tribute to the talents of head gardener Darren Dickey, who cares for the subtropical gardens along with three gardeners and ten regular volunteers. Darren arrived at Trebah as a junior gardener some three decades ago, having cut his gardening teeth at the neighbouring National Trust garden Glendurgan (once home to Charles Fox’s brother Alfred), and worked under “three excellent head gardeners” before taking the top job himself in 2002. His enthusiasm for this place is infectious.
To hear Darren describe some of his favourite plant combinations – “Amomyrtus luma mixed with Sarcococca, because it creates such a great contrasting scent” – or how emerging rhododendrons bleed into the flowering acacias in late spring, or of the Davidia and Cornus, it’s like listening to child talk of an approaching Christmas. But for all his love of the plants, Darren knows it is the garden’s sheer scale that most excites visitors.
Four miles of pathways descend gently along the sides of the valley, leading those visitors down to Trebah’s private beach Polgwidden Cove (one of the embarkation points for the D-Day landings). Along the way, these paths offer epic views across to the opposing bank through the canopies of bamboo, rhododendrons and magnolias, which form the backbone to a huge variety of less common plants, such as Chilean natives Drimys winteri and Gevuina avellana. They also bring visitors in close contact with the drama of the garden, from its many champion trees, including a Magnolia campbellii, to the collections of Chilean and Chinese plants that thrive in this mild microclimate.
As fabulous as these fantastic, setpiece views down through the valley are, some of the garden’s smaller moments are equally charming. A collection of tree ferns, Sphaeropteris medullaris and S. excelsa, enjoying the damp air of the stumpery and cascade water feature, or the delicate flowers of Camellia sasanqua leaning over the upper bank of the pathways transport the visitor to other worlds.
Once in the lower part of the garden, the valley floor opens up to reveal an en masse planting of giant rhubarb (Gunnera x cryptica) with their enormous leaves over 2m wide. Seeing these beasts in their sleeping majesty is as breathtaking as experiencing their giant scale in the height of summer. As their protective hats of last year’s foliage begin to break down, the emergence of fresh growth has the brightest of greens.
Beyond this, the Gunnera Passage flows into Hydrangea Valley – two acres of blueflowering hydrangeas, mostly H. macrophylla ‘Générale Vicomtesse de Vibraye’, which create the most vivid of summer displays. Originally planted in the 1950s to fulfil the demands for cut flowers at Covent Garden Market, they continue to delight visitors right though until the beginning of winter.
Earlier this year, Trebah, like much of Cornwall, was hit hard by Storm Goretti and many of its mature windbreak trees performed their ultimate sacrifice and were felled by the hurricane-strength winds. Darren is philosophical about the losses and keen to highlight the opportunities the storm has created. “It’s opened up an area we can plant with the Rhododendron arboreum we’ve been gifted,” he says. “And another area for rare conifers, which have come from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.”
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Trebah, and a big part of its appeal, is that it keeps adding to its plant collections, ensuring it always offers a rich variety of plants. One of the newer areas, Bamboozle, is home to a collection of more than 50 different species of bamboo, including the crowd pleasing Phyllostachys edulis, which can put on up to 30cm a day in summer.
The garden is also home to an on-site nursery team, which supplies additional plants for the garden, along with in excess of 60 per cent of the plants for Trebah’s Plant Centre, giving visitors the chance to take home a little piece of Trebah.
But whether they buy a plant or not, what all visitors take away is a memory of this fabulous place. “Meeting adults who visited as children, and hearing their wonder that the trees and plants they
remember as a child are just as big in reality, that brings genuine happiness,” says Darren. “That continuation of memories is what is so special here, and something that I hope continues into the future.”
USEFUL INFORMATION Address Trebah Gardens, Mawnan Smith, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 5JZ. Tel 01326 252200. Web trebahgarden.co.uk Open Daily, 9.30am-4.30pm. Admission £17.50.
