Achamore Gardens


The gardens are situated on the community-owned Isle of Gigha, 3 miles from the western peninsula of Kintyre. It is some 7 miles long and 1 mile wide, with Ireland 30 miles south, Islay 10 miles west and Jura 10 miles northwest. The views are stunning: the Paps of Jura, Ben More 50 miles away on Mull, Goat Fell on Arran 20 miles east and panoramic sea views.

However, this garden is Oceanic, Atlantic and is influenced by the Gulf Stream. Frosts and snow are very rare and rainfall is reputed to be only some 100 cm, half that on the mainland. The garden lies between about 10 and 100 m above sea-level. It’s on fertile, acid, sandy loam, with either a clay or gravel subsoil, providing ideal growing conditions for a wide range of plants from around the world, including bryophytes and ferns.

The Horlick years

‘I purchased the Island at the end of the War (1939–45) and started to make a garden in 1945. I had no experience of seaside gardening and was blissfully ignorant of Atlantic gales and the damage they can do . . .’

Col. James Horlick, along with his professional gardener Kitty Lloyd Jones, who worked with him in Sunninghill, started the layout for the present 54 acres of woodland-compartment garden. With help from Jim Russell of Sunningdale Nurseries, Sir Eric Saville and a host of other renowned horticulturists, such as George Taylor, Horlick was able to establish a garden that boasted a great array of plants. The garden was soon to develop as a home for the Horlick rhododendron collection, where he bred and registered over 30 cultivars: Rhododendron ‘Mrs. James Horlick’ in flower is a favourite with visitors. Before Kitty Lloyd Jones left Achamore Gardens, she collaborated with Horlick in devising a plan which gives a detailed overview of the garden areas and some key plantings. The years between 1945 and the death of Horlick in 1971 are regarded as the ‘glory years’.

Achamore after Horlick

After Malcolm Allan (Gardener 1918–70), the mantle of Head Gardener fell to Peter Clough, a plantsman who continued to develop the plant collection, before moving on around 1974. Malcolm McNeill continued and gardened at Achamore from 1958 until his retirement in 2006. In 1973, Peter Clough had written a wonderful plant inventory, and this was backed up by a series of hand-drawn plans of every plant in each garden location (completed by David Wagg in 1977). These are the last vestiges of any plant or garden records. The community buy-out in 2002, along with the appointment of Micky Little as Head Gardener in October 2006, has led to an upturn in plant recording; in conjunction with Ann Steele (National Trust for Scotland), a database of the woody plants has been initiated. Using a management tool called SWOT analysis, I am concentrating on each area or garden compartment. So, before any physical work starts on a compartment, I prepare a plan for its conservation, restoration, future maintenance and financial sustainability.

The future

With some historical information and the opportunity to tap into the knowledge of local folk who remember key moments of the garden, its plants or the gardeners who worked with those plants, the garden is at the beginning of a new era. After imbibing the ‘spirit of the place, and trying to decipher the ethos of the gardens, the conclusion I have reached is that Achamore Gardens is a mid-twentieth-century, Atlantic coastal, woodland garden influenced by the gulf stream, linked throughout with rhododendrons and meandering pathways, and culminating in a 2-acre walled garden that can house plants that exploit its microclimate. It was a private garden built by wealthy businessman, who is quoted as saying, in March 1964 at an RHS lecture, ‘I can only tell you that creating a garden out of this mess has given me the most enjoyable 20 years of my life, and certainly the busiest . . .’. As the islanders now own the garden, they all have a ‘sense of ownership. They are very happy to see the garden undergoing serious structural changes, new planting schemes and a revival of a horticultural passion.

So, what’s happening now?

Before any plants are cut back or removed, they are recorded and, in some cases, pictures are taken. Their growing condition or plant association is assessed and acted upon. In many cases, especially for specific rhododendrons, propagation material is gathered and only after successful root initiation is the plant removed. More such work is needed.

A central composting site has been developed, and all new planting sites have compost added before planting and mulching. New plants are being obtained from many sources: reputable nurseries, other gardens, own plant material and botanic gardens. The latter kindly donated a wonderful collection of ferns; Andrew Ensoll of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh selected ferns such as Thyrsopteris elegans (a Chilean tree fern), Cyathea dregii (a tree fern from South Africa, needing full sun) and Osmunda banksiifolia (usually grown under glass, but let’s try it outdoors). At present, all these young ferns are on display in an old tomato house.

With staffing and accommodation always an issue, I have to review the whole 54-acre site and question whether a complete site-maintenance schedule is practical. With two of us full-time, the answer is no. So, key areas have been selected, not only for their horticultural, architectural and topographical importance, but also with visitors in mind. These key areas are where we will divert our resources to improve the garden. Other parts will simply have to be closed until funding can be found to open them again. This has reduced the enormity of the restoration programme and makes it viable in terms of both finances and achieving a site of horticultural excellence. This is still very much ongoing.

Conclusion

The unique microclimate has allowed some of the unusual plants to flourish. Fully mature Metrosideros excelsa, Anopterus glandulosa and Atherosperma moschata are all growing within the walled garden and Pinus montezume and P. patula next door, all with self-sown seedlings of Echium pininana. A Clianthus puniceus rambles nicely near a Lomatia ferruguinea which has Lapergeria rosea scrambling nearby.

What a chance there is to play planting and to experiment with the zones of hardiness and push these wonderful horticultural delights to the fore. Horlick had planted specimens of Metasequoia glyptostroboides as soon as they were available, back in the late 1940s and this has allowed me to be just as decadent and plant Wollemia nobilis. It was so exciting planting a group of Puya alpestris after clearing a bed within the walled garden last year to be rewarded with one plant in full flower in August 2008. We have a collection of Horlick’s slides, and within them is slide of a puya in flower in the walled garden in 1953. The Horlick era of collecting and breeding rhododendrons, exotic and half-hardy planting, and planting specimen trees are the ethos I am aiming for at Achamore Gardens.