Great Dixter House and Gardens

Announcing Great Dixter Parishioners Days:

Sunday 22nd September 11am to 5pm.

Please bring proof of residence to gain free entry.

An online symposium for people who aren’t able to come to Great Dixter in person. Led by Head Gardener Fergus Garrett, this Symposium has 7 one hour pre-recorded lectures, October, November, February, March, April, May, June. There will be an additional 4 one hour live Question and Answer sessions.

The aim of the course is to take participants through the gardening year during the intensive months of October to June. This is a critical time in the garden where you can get ahead and achieve much, redesigning, making adjustments and preparing for next year. In each session, Great Dixter’s Head Gardener Fergus Garrett, will outline work for the month, the timing of operations and how the work is prioritised.

This month-by-month series will focus on the practicalities of the work at Great Dixter, giving you an insight into how this garden functions. We will not only look at the practical tasks but also deal with how we analyse and edit the picture. This course is designed to break down the subject matter making it relevant to beginners as well as more experienced gardeners, in gardens large or small.

To book visit link in bio

A number of bursary spaces are available - please contact [email protected]

Sun-rays and rain showers through the Old Rose Garden. Photo taken by our Christopher Lloyd Scholar .well who studied photography before finding a passion for gardening.

High Garden

New Online Symposium - Working the garden the Great Dixter way: gardening from October 24 to June 25.

An online symposium for those people who aren’t able to come to Great Dixter in person. Led by Head Gardener Fergus Garrett, this symposium has 7 one hour pre-recorded lectures, October, November, February, March, April and June. There will be an additional 4 one hour live Question and Answer sessions.

The aim of the course is to take participants through the gardening year during the intensive months of October to June. This is a critical time in the garden where you can achieve much, redesigning, making adjustments and preparing for next year. In each session, Great Dixter’s Head Gardener Fergus Garrett, will outline work for the month, the timing of operations and how the work is prioritised.

This month by month series will focus on the practicalities of the work at Great Dixter, giving you an insight into how this garden functions. We will not only look at the practical tasks but also deal with how we analyse and edit the picture. This course is designed to break down the subject matter making it relevant to beginners as well as more experienced gardeners, in gardens large or small.

£450.00 for the course.

Link for booking- https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/ticket-events/working-the-garden-the-great-dixter-way-gardening-from-oct-24-to-june-25-an-online-symposium-led-by-fergus-garrett/

Bursary places are available:please email [email protected]

Front of the house with Great Dixter gardeners and scholars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

.slabbert

Ready for Day 2 -Great Dixter Summer Plant Fair- open today from 11am. We had a wonderful first day, the field is packed full of stalls with so many beautiful plants. With thanks to for this great photo.

The Great Dixter Plant Fair is on all weekend!

Lovely to see Charlotte Molesorth at the Plant Fair.

Today and tomorrow!!!

The Great Dixter Summer Plant Fair is this weekend. Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July. We look forward to welcoming you to what is always a wonderful weekend.

Great Dixter Summer Plant Fair-Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July, 11am to 5pm. We’re looking forward to welcoming plant nurseries from near and far to what is always a very special weekend.

Sometimes you walk past a part of the garden and don’t realise there is a gardener in your vicinity, quietly working, concentrating. It’s lovely to spot the team standing back to assess their work. Here’s a few of the garden team in action.

Great Dixter runs a weekly Garden Explorers group. Recently they have been busy investigating meadow invertebrates at the education centre. This is a wonderful way to open up a new world to the next generation learning about what they’ve found, life cycles, habitat, feeding needs. This is an activity that the little ones are always very enthusiastic about.

If you are in the Liverpool area on 22nd June, Fergus is giving a talk for at from 11am until 1.30pm. Scouse flower house is a wonderful organisation and it would be great to support them. You can take a walk in Everton Park afterwards and enjoy the many flowers, including vipers bugloss which is just beginning to break into flower on the lower slopes.

What wonderful creative portal in horticulture between the north and the south. Link in bio for tickets.

A beautiful week at Great Dixter, plenty of sunshine and plenty of visitors. The high garden is receiving a lot of praise at the moment with rivers of Papaver commutatum, the Ladybird Poppy running through the large beds looking as if they’ve self seeded when in actual fact these have all been grown from seed and planted out by the garden team.

The Topiary Lawn meadow is looking beautiful in the early evening sunshine.

Great Dixter is open this Monday 20th May as it’s Chelsea week and we’re all abuzz in the gardening world. The tulips have now finished their show, the Ladybird poppies are now coming into flower along with Gladiolus byzantinus, eye catching vibrant colours set against the zingy backdrop of Smyrnium perfoliatum. It’s now a steady build as the herbaceous perennials come into flower. The show gets better and better, with self seeded Cow Parsley bringing beautiful froth to the garden.

We are open throughout this bank holiday weekend. The Swallows are back, spotted yesterday swooping under the eaves of the house. The garden is now gathering momentum, the borders getting taller, still some tulips remaining in flower, thy ere is so much to see at every turn.

Job Vacancy- Facilities Manager - we have an exciting opportunity to join the senior management team. The primary responsibility of the role is delivery of the maintenance and preservation programme for Great Dixter house and estate.

The role will plan and manage all building and facilities works, property security and health and safety within the annual budget and lead and manage any building, conservation and development projects. Follow this link for more information and details of how to apply. https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/job-opportunities Closing date:31st May 2024.

We are pleased to announce that we have rescheduled the cancelled plant fair. The new date for your diary is Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July.

More tulips around Dixter
1- Long Border
2- T. ‘Akebono’ with Prunus glandulosa ‘Alba Plena’
3- Bedding pocket in the High Garden planted up by and .lar using woad, alliums, and tulips
4 - T. ‘Pieter de leur’
5 - T. acuminata
6 - Bedding pocket with tulips over a foliage base of Lychnis coronaria and Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’
7 - T. ‘World Friendship’ and N. ‘Pipit’

Fergus will be with Ruislip Central Horticultural Society this Thursday evening to give a talk. 7.30pm see stories for a link to buy tickets.

Beautiful evening in the garden

The Tulips throughout the garden are providing an injection of colour. Smyrnium perfoliatum now joins the party along with the towering umbels of Ferrula communis, their acid green flowers beautifully contrast with the strong colours of the tulips.

We have a last minute cancellation of two spaces for our May24 symposium. Starting on the 11th May, spanning 7 days, this lecture based symposium is limited to just 12 attendees and is a rare opportunity to learn first hand from Fergus and his team. Accommodation and meals are included in the price. For further information, please click on the link in bio.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT-It is with huge regret that we have cancelled this weekends Spring Plant Fair. The fields that we use for parking are completely waterlogged, apologies for late notice but we had hoped the weather would be kinder to us this week, instead we’ve had even more rain.

The garden is changing by the day, tulips are now colouring up. Last week the garden team pruned the Brunswick fig on the barn wall, seen through the Sunk Garden arch. An iconic Great Dixter image. We are open throughout Easter, each day including Sunday and bank holiday Monday from 11am.

Applications are now invited for the Christopher Lloyd Scholarship and the Nursery Scholarship. Would you like to spend a year in the garden or nursery, learning from the team? These are paid scholarships with subsidised accommodation. Click on the link in our bio for further information on the role and how to apply.