Hotel garden near Market Drayton joins elite Royal Horticultural Society club
The Royal Horticultural Society has chosen a hotel near Market Drayton to join its elite list of just over 200 partnered gardens across the UK and overseas.
The Goldstone Hall Hotel, southwest of Cheswardine, is now a partner of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
Its five-acre gardens were recognised for their designs and planting. The hotel's partner status means RHS members will be able to visit for free at certain times of the year to support the charity.
Owner John Cushing said: "We are thrilled to have been selected as an RHS Partner Garden for 2020. To collaborate with the UK’s leading gardening charity and to be able to share our love and passion for plants, flowers, trees and wildlife with RHS members is a joy and a privilege.
See our photos of the garden here:
"We are particularly excited to introduce RHS members to our one acre productive kitchen garden – one of the largest of its kind in the UK – with unique herbal walkway and other unusual edibles which supplies fresh, seasonal produce to our hotel restaurant.
"With over 30 years of landscaping, planting and propagating, visitors will not only be able to see the wide variety of edibles being grown but taste them also seasonally in our restaurant."
High standards
The hotel gardens were initiated by Mr Cushing’s mother, Helen Ward, who channelled her passion for gardening into transforming the wilderness that was.
It is now curated by head gardener Nick Huxley and assistant gardener Danny Allman. Mr Huxley has been tending to and managing the garden for over 11 years.
The hotel features double-tiered herbaceous borders, a walled garden with a micro-climate, rose garden and a laburnum arch.
An area of 140sq meters under an old cherry tree has recently been cultivated with wild flowers.
The RHS partner garden scheme has 207 gardens; 185 in the UK and 22 overseas. 54 per cent of RHS member claimed a visit in 2017/2018.
The charity's website explained the criteria for its partner gardens: "Whether formal landscape, late-season borders or woodland, all partner gardens offer inspiration to keen gardeners through high standards of design and/or planting.
"Many are well known, some less so, resulting in a stimulating mix of styles that visitors should find interesting throughout the gardening year."
To learn more, visit goldstonehallhotel.co.uk or call 01630 661202.
