Coleton Fishacre (Devon, England)
Coleton Fishacre was in my top 5 gardens on the tour. This Arts & Crafts style house and garden was the country home of Rupert D'Oyly Carte and his wife Lady Dorothy Carte. He was the well-known theater owner (The Savoy) and producer (Gilbert & Sullivan). They spotted the property from their yacht and thought it would be a great spot for a country home and garden. Ah, to have that much money... They commissioned Oswald Milne, a former student of Edward Lutyens to design the house. Both Rupert and Lady Dorothy were interested in gardening but it was Lady Dorothy who mainly planted the garden, filling it with exotic and tender plants that survived with the influence of the Gulf stream. They employed six full-time gardeners! I often wonder if people who have that much money are really able to enjoy a property like this and actually live in it? Their tenure here wasn't that long (a dozen years or so), although Dorothy lived here full-time in the late 19...
















Wait, pet cemetery? Did you say "pet cemetery"? The garden has a pet cemetery?! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteThat Japanese garden looks very impressive. I have to go take some pictures of a secret Japanese garden in downtown San Francisco I heard about recently.
Yes, there was a pet cemetery. It was a small circle with about 10-12 graves of pets.
ReplyDeleteWow, real tombstones for her pets. She's not buried there, too, is she?
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you on the Japanese garden. Now that's one worth cultivating!
Her ashes are placed at the bottom of the obelisk type feature in the rose garden.
DeleteMark me down as thinking the pet cemetery is a *fabulous* garden feature! You just don't expect a pet cemetery! Suddenly, I think if I had a big garden (really big) , I would like to have in it somewhere a small pet cemetery--even if it was fake.
ReplyDeleteAt the San Francisco Flower and Garden show this year, an exhibitor built a small landscape of poisonous plants, subtly adorned here and there with distressed tombstones.