Jill Ward Shares The Incredible National Collection Of Waterlilies At Burnby Hall
Burnby Hall is nestled in the heart of Yorkshire and is home to a stunning National Collection of waterlilies, with some plants from almost 100 years ago.
Jill Ward, the Head Gardener at Burnby Hall, took me on a tour of the gardens and shared more on their history, the recently renovated rock garden and that famous National Plant Collection.
Watch our full tour with Jill on our YouTube channel:
The Garden History
“The gardens originally belonged to Major Percy and Catherine Stewart,” says Jill.
“They owned the house in around about 1901 and they spent four years renovating it.
“Once they’d renovated the house they turned their attention to the gardens. The gardens are based around two lakes, the upper lake, which is about one and a quarter acres, and the lower lake, which is a third of an acre.
“That makes the gardens an elongated site, and running off the two lakes are several gardens, all based on different themes.
“We have a secret garden, a rock garden, a walled garden, a stumpery and a birch walk, which is our winter-themed garden.”
The Rock Garden
“Our Backhouse rock garden was built in 1910 for Percy and Catherine,” shares Jill.
“Back in 2014, the gardens were actually celebrating their 50th anniversary and at the time this rock garden was completely overgrown.
“So, it was completely cleared back to soil and rock and then it was left fallow for two years because there was some perennial weeds we wanted to get rid of.
“This meant that it actually wasn’t planted up until the autumn of 2018.
“Running through the rock garden we have our stream and it’s been replanted with things such as Primula florindae, which I really love.”
The Waterlily Collection
“During their travels, Catherine and Percy would have seen some hardy water lilies, and it was Catherine’s idea to plant up the lakes with these plants, which was done for them in 1935,” Jill explains.
“Sadly, Catherine died in 1939, so she only saw them for four years, but that essentially was the start of the National Collection.
“Our upper lake was built in 1904. Originally it wasn’t as big as you see today. It’s actually been extended twice since the first building.
“We have about 50 different varieties of waterlily in the upper lake.
“One of my favourites is ‘James Brydon’. There’s one called ‘Lemon Mist’ which is very nice as well, as well as one called ‘Almost Black’.”
Visiting The Gardens
“I hope our visitors have a really enjoyable, relaxing day,” Jill smiles.
“It would be great if they maybe could go away with an idea of what they can do with their garden.
“I’d love for them to take a small part of what we’ve got at Burnby and apply it at home.”
To visit the gardens at Burnby Hall for yourself, visit their website for more information.
