✿ Tranquil pastels create formal elegance
The gentle splash of a fountain, cheerful birdsong and billowing blue and white flowers create the ultimate garden retreat. Ann Rutherford shares her garden secrets
This elegant garden on the outskirts of London has a soothing ambience, with carefully considered planting schemes where nothing jars the eye. “It’s a garden for flower lovers,” says owner Ann Rutherford, who lives here with her husband Andrew. “Our visitors come back year after year to enjoy the peaceful setting and to see what’s new in the borders.”
The Rutherfords moved to Dulwich Village more than 30 years ago. Andrew was attracted by the Georgian house façade while Ann was drawn to the generous garden. “It was well maintained, but without any love or inspiration,” she says. “I couldn’t wait to get started, and bring back some formal elegance to its tired borders.”
Today old-fashioned roses, delphiniums and an ancient mulberry tree create a nostalgic, timeless feel. “The garden is rectangular and occupies three different levels,” explains Ann. “There are broad flights of shallow stone steps leading between each level.
“Close to the house we’ve added a formal goldfish pond, surrounded by thick slabs of York stone paving. The central fountain sends up a gentle spray that helps to create the tranquil mood; I wanted the planting scheme to be equally peaceful, too.
“I opted for a blue and white colour scheme because there’s plenty of brighter colour further down the garden,” says Ann. Toning in with the cool blue delphiniums and white roses is a silvery haze of Stachys byzantina. “Its woolly foliage contrasts with our lacy artemisias, although I remove the yellow artemisia flowers to keep the colour scheme cool.”
Clouds of nepeta provide billowing pale-blue flowers, along with the cobaltblue saucers of geranium ‘Orion’. “I let the blue Nigella damascena and echium ‘Blue Bedder’ self sow because the visiting
The fountain sends up a gentle spray that helps create the tranquil mood
pollinators love them,” says Ann. “I only thin them out if it’s strictly necessary.
“I also sow a few half-hardy annuals such as pure-white cosmos, ‘Psyche White’, which flowers from July until the frosts.”
Finding true blue flowers was a challenge. “That’s one of the reasons I grow so many delphiniums,” says Ann. “The bright-blue ‘Blue Tit’ is shorter than many (H1m/42in) but it’s very useful close to the pond. Some of my collection have been in the garden for years: I bought some as bareroot plants from a London market, others from the garden centre, or nurseries; others I raised from seed bought from The Delphinium Society.”
My mother gardened, and back in those days you never bought plants
“I’ve got lots of different colours, but the strong blues are my favourites,” says Ann. “I weave them through other tall plants, including the airy white Crambe cordifolia, white rosebay willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium ‘Album’) and sunflowers.
“My other pond is less formal,” says Ann. “It’s a wildlife pond with a waterfall and rocky outcrops made from blue-grey rocks quarried in the Lake District. Next to the pond is an area of lawn where I have a slate sphere made by James Parker, a Scottish sculptor who regularly exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show.”
One of the garden’s main attractions is its early 20th-century greenhouse. “I use it all the time,” says Ann. “It’s close to the house, so I can pop in and out whatever the weather. I love to produce home-grown plants from cuttings and seed. My mother always gardened and back in those days you never bought plants; they were handed around by neighbours and friends. I learned how to propagate them by watching her.”
August is a key month for taking cuttings. “I raise lots of salvias,” says Ann. “I’m particularly fond of the bright red ones for my hotter planting schemes toward the back of the garden. When the greenhouse is really full, I hang seed trays from its metal roof struts. I don’t know if it’s safe – the steelwork’s probably 100 years old!”
Ann sells her propagated plants on garden open days. “We’ve been opening the garden for charity for the last 20 years,” she says. “I love the excitement of it. In 2019, when we opened with next door, we raised more than £6,000 for the local hospice.”
The garden’s proximity to Dulwich Park attracts plenty of wildlife. “I have at last found a way to feed small birds where squirrels, parakeets and magpies can’t disturb them – using a raised dog cage. Inside it I can hang feeders with fat balls and peanuts and put in small dishes of sunflower hearts and buggy nibbles. Small birds can easily nip in through its bars.”
Ann has counted kingfishers and woodpeckers among her visitors.
“We also had three naughty fox cubs coming regularly last year, which stole the gardener’s box of biscuits and her headphones, but brought us a small rug and a security camera in exchange!” ✿