The Garden

The garden at Trereife benefits from having one of only five modern parterre gardens. Parterre
comes from the French for ‘on the ground’ and is defined as being a garden constructed on a surface of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging and gravel paths. Laid out in 1999 in time for the new millennium, the elaborate parterre was planned out by designer, Lyn Le Grice, to enliven the terrace adjacent to the Queen Anne front of 1904. Divided by a ‘ha ‘ha’ from the parkland if offered a spacious format and a chance of a fresh focus for the garden.

A charming feature of the interior of the House are the plasterwork ceilings crafted by skilled Italian journeymen working in Cornwall in the early 1700’s. Working in the spirit of these Italian renaissance concepts, the parterre was designed as a series of arabesque interlocking beds laid out in Box, lined in Santolina and infilled with the vivid blue hue of horizontal Ceanothus.

This low lying garden is capped at its end by tall flanking hedges of yew and adds dramatic nuance to the garden. The long border running the length of the brick walls has a magnificent wisteria, possibly 150 years old. Large plantings of Agapanthus transform the border in the summer months and a long border of lavender runs in a blue scented haze behind a bed of shrubs.

In 2004 seven varieties of Medlars were planted including a rare Iranian Medlar. These line the left hand side of the drive and continue along the top of the ‘Ha Ha’ bordering the fields. These are excellent small trees with beautiful flowers and interesting fruit. Planted in a walled

garden are peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, cherries, apples and pears.These are grown as fans and Espalieus against the old brick walls. Although the garden contains many Magnolias and Rhododendrons

which were planted between 1920-1930 there is still much more work to be done, which makes it a challenging and exciting project.