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British garden designers Isabel and Julian Bannerman do n’t do thing halfway . Their signature act is to create dreamyEnglish country gardensfilled with historical allusion : a mankind of rosebush and ruins , formal allées and follies . They are n’t daunted by unpromising sites . On the Duke of Norfolk ’s estate in West Sussex , they built gateway and green - oak pavilions found on the drawings of Inigo Jones , Charles I ’s favorite designer , in a former parking lot . In the middle of a scale - lined grotto , a golden crownwork rise on the waters of a fountain and dances in midair . When it comes to theatricality , the Bannermans ca n’t help piling it on .
Julian and Isabel Bannerman met in their 20s in the rollick artistic production view of Edinburgh , Scotland . They have been together , personally and professionally , since . Their unreconstructed Bohemian aspect belies their passion for the well - manicured gardens of England ’s historic estate of the realm and their business among England ’s social elite group , from entertainer to the Prince of Wales . photograph by : Adrian Sherratt . SEE MORE OF THE BANNERMAN ‘S GARDENS
Like their garden , the Bannermans own a particularly British mixture of grandeur , wit , and slenderly frowzled Bohemianism . Isabel ’s pierce blueish eye are couch by a snarl of pale blond hair , which she often traverse with a human beings ’s wool fedora . Julian , 60 , is 10 years older , more opinionated , and well rumpled . Neither Bannerman prepares you to see on their internet site the motto “ Ich Dien , ” marking that they are by Appointment to the Prince of Wales , for whom they create a stumpery ( a Victorian mixture in which gnarled tree automobile trunk are arranged in a picturesque tableau vivant ) at Highgrove , Charles ’ home in Gloucestershire . More recently , they were on manus when Queen Elizabeth dedicate their memorial garden for the 67 British victim of 9/11 in Hanover Square in lower Manhattan .
The Bannermans have begun to stretch out their usual idiom of the large country garden . late task let in a down - cardinal cottage garden in Wiltshire for Caryn Mandabach , the American producer of Showtime’sNurse Jackie , and a court for 5 Hertford Street , a newfangled private club in London ’s Mayfair . The 9/11 garden features a low , snaking rampart that some brand the form of Britain and is uncharacteristically contemporary . “ That ’s what was call for in the context , ” says Isabel .
A view in other summer past the courtly water feature to the pear orchard at Wychwood Manor , a garden the Bannermans designed in Oxfordshire , England . The pea gravel path , foreground , is dampen by herbaceous plantings . Photo by : Mick Hales . SEE MORE OF THE BANNERMAN ‘S GARDENS
Isabel and Julian met in Edinburgh in the early 1980s , where she was studying history at the university and he was working in contemporary artistic creation . The home of an outside artwork festival , Scotland ’s capital letter has long been a thriving cultural center . The young mates could have put their vitality into computer architecture or theatrical design , says Isabel . rather , they propel to west England and began project garden and garden buildings . In 1990 , the current Lord Rothschild gave them their first major charge , require them to plan a water garden and grotto at Waddesdon Manor , his family ’s nineteenth - C country house . They ended up converting the dairy , once a showplace for the Rothschild oxen collection , into a conference center .
Their piece of work win Civic Trust and Europa Nostra awards and vaulted them to their land ’s gamey domain . They have designed garden for England ’s great and good of every stripe , from Andrew Lloyd Webber to the Marquess of Cholmondeley to John Paul Getty II .
The enfold terrace garden outside the session room at Wychwood Manor is surrounded by a yew hedge with a doorway the Bannermans designed . The door is made from immature oak , a wood that can be chip at and handle to resemble more dearly-won rock . Photo by : Adrian Sherratt . SEE MORE OF THE BANNERMAN ‘S GARDENS
Her move into picture taking “ was inadvertent , really , ” say Isabel . “ I had always taken picture of the garden at Hanham Court [ the seven - bedroom gabled business firm in southwest England where the Bannermans raised their Logos , Ismay , Rex , and Bertie ] , but they were unsatisfactory . I could n’t quite conquer its heart . ” She start experiment with tight - ups , shooting plants in a box lined with black velvet to supply the perfect indifferent background .
The photo present a deep stem to Karl Blossfeldt , the early 20th - century lensman whose pictorial , almost architectural icon of plant they recall . “ These mental picture get right in there to the plant human beings , ” say Isabel . “ They are more like it is , the texture and the color that you experience in the garden . ”
Now Isabel and Julian are affect into Modern projects . Four calendar month ago the Bannermans betray Hanham Court and the beautiful garden they made there to take a 20 - year lease on Trematon , a Georgian - earned run average sign farther to the south and west in Cornwall . have by the Prince of Wales ( he is also Duke of Cornwall ) , it comes ended with its own twelfth - hundred castle in the nine - acre grounds . “ The gardens are crying out to be done , ” state Isabel . They are already planning to have them quick for private garden tours in 2013 , but what they will do with their newfangled canvas is anyone ’s guess . Though they continue to refer in their garden to Renaissance Britain and Italy , “ we do n’t do it for nostalgic reason , ” say Isabel . “ It ’s all about good design , which our culture has provided over hundreds of years . ”
The ample chronicle of British gardens and country home base , in other words , is no limitation but a license to formulate . At the Duke of Norfolk ’s demesne , the seaboard location and the intake of its earlier master , Thomas Howard ( known as “ the Collector ” ) , give up them to plant palms , bamboos , and tropic specie “ to make it foreign and otherworldly , ” says Isabel , befitting the memory of an earl concerned in pull in oddities . The ancient architecture pass the plantings but does n’t determine their option . “ The buildings give you something to cast anchor the plant to , and the plants soften the buildings , ” she say . “ They really help each other . ”
This sounds much like the duet ’s relationship when it come to plan a garden . Having worked together for intimately 30 geezerhood , theirs is a symbiotic partnership . “ It does n’t really separate up , ” says Isabel . “ We both think in the same way . ”
This article was published in our April 2012 issue as " Natural Phenomena . "
Caroline Donald is an editor atThe Sunday Timesof London .
