The Gardens

The Red Garden

This is the first garden visitors see on the approach from the Visitor Centre at the Animal Park and was designed in the classic Italian Renaissance style, as at “La Mortola”, by the Hanburys. In the 1930s the beautiful formal lily pond was edged with Portland stone flags, interplanted with hummocks of thyme and Dwarf Festuca.

Large terracotta pots and amphorae filled with geraniums were placed in Mediterranean fashion at the corners of the pool. At one end there was a delightful summerhouse and the steps leading to a viewing mound and Greek temple at the other.

The Temple Mound & The Temple of the Four Winds

This was originally built as the sighting mound for surveying during the construction of the Georgian House. Visitors who climb up to the Temple have a wonderful panoramic view of the gardens and the Dorset countryside, virtually untouched since Thomas Hardy’s time.
From this raised mound, the full beauty of the formal gardens, the structure and the ‘rooms’ or individual gardens can be seen. The view down from the croquet lawn is in line with the diamond-shaped clairvoyee cut in the yew coronet of the Crown Garden.

The Penstemon Terrace

There are two half-hardy beds on either side of the steps to the Red Garden These are planted with a variety of tender perennials, scented geraniums and Euphorbias to provide a wide variety of flower and foliage in a typical Edwardian style.
A grassy path leads on to the Penstemon Terrace which is protected by dark green yew buttresses and planted with peonies that blend with billowing sprays of starry Asters providing vertical structure and a foil to the informal drifts of Penstemons.

The Brick Garden

This is the first garden visitors see on the approach from the Visitor Centre at the Animal Park and was designed in the classic Italian Renaissance style, as at “La Mortola”, by the Hanburys. In the 1930s the beautiful formal lily pond was edged with Portland stone flags, interplanted with hummocks of thyme and Dwarf Festuca.
Large terracotta pots and amphorae filled with geraniums were placed in Mediterranean fashion at the corners of the pool. At one end there was a delightful summerhouse and the steps leading to a viewing mound and Greek temple at the other.

The Herbaceous Border

Dark velvety green clipped yew hedges and pillars of yew topiary frame the entrance and lead the visitor from the Brick Garden down the steps into the Herbaceous Border terminated by a stone birdbath.
This is the traditional English double herbaceous border densely planted with a rich variety of herbaceous perennials and in true Victorian/Edwardian style was originally designed to be in full glory and a riot of colour in July and August when the owners were in the country.

The Crown Garden

This is the heart of the Edwardian Garden created by Lady Dorothy Hanbury and was formerly the Hanburys’ Rose Garden before the roses were removed due to rose sickness. It was named the Crown Garden to represent the clipped coronet of yew planted in Edwardian times with an ornamental stone well sitting as a centrepiece.

The Japanese Garden

This is the first garden visitors see on the approach from the Visitor Centre at the Animal Park and was designed in the classic Italian Renaissance style, as at “La Mortola”, by the Hanburys. In the 1930s the beautiful formal lily pond was edged with Portland stone flags, interplanted with hummocks of thyme and Dwarf Festuca.
Large terracotta pots and amphorae filled with geraniums were placed in Mediterranean fashion at the corners of the pool. At one end there was a delightful summerhouse and the steps leading to a viewing mound and Greek temple at the other.

The Terrace Garden

The broad gravel walk has symmetrical rectangular beds on either side. These are planted with seasonal plants such as polyanthus, heuchera and doronicum in winter and subtle plantings of tender perennials in summer including verbena, diascia, Argyranthemum, alonsoa and nemesia.
It leads to an impressive, wide flight of Portland stone steps, giving a wonderful prospect over the Balustrade Terrace to the left and the beautifully manicured lawn, sweeping dramatically down to the lake, on the right with the ‘borrowed landscape’ of rolling Dorset countryside in the distance.

National Plant Collections

Kingston Maurward holds collections of tender Salvia and Penstemon cultivars. These collections are registered as National Plant collections overseen by the Plant Heritage organization. Plant Heritage has as part of its mission to propagate and conserve cultivated plants. Both collections can be viewed in the collections borders in the formal gardens, at their best from July through to the autumn.