Great Dixter in Spring

Great Dixter is the most rewarding garden to visit in any season - ideally you would return several times a year to see the ever-changing planting displays, brilliantly curated by Dixter’s director Fergus Garrett. In 2020, just before the country went into lockdown number one, I visited with a friend on the spur of the moment, having seen one of Dixter’s Instagram posts of the fritillaries. We raced around the M25 and immersed ourselves in fritillary heaven for a few hours, which bolstered our spirits and kept us going over the next few difficult weeks.

At Dixter in early spring the beds are still looking bare, with primroses, hellebores and euphorbias flowering among the emerging tulips. The bones of the garden stand out: the fabulous yew hedges, the brick paths, the walls, steps and archways. But the meadow areas are bejewelled with early spring bulbs - miniature narcissi, crocus, erythroniums and most importantly, fritillaries. Christopher Lloyd wrote of his mother, Daisy, who raised wild daffodils and snakeshead fritillaries from seed, and today white and purple fritillaries emerge every year in the front meadow and in the orchard. ‘They revel in heavy, wet meadow soils,’ he wrote.

For plant profile on fritillaries click here.