A Tale of Two Gardens and a Lasting Friendship

Discover how two world-famous gardens were created by lifelong friends from fields high up on a Cotswolds escarpment.  Hidcote Manor Gardens are a beautiful  example of arts and crafts design, featuring  a series of intricate outdoor ‘rooms’ created by the quiet American, Major Lawrence Johnston.  

His secret gardens and magnificent vistas inspired his next-door neighbour and lifelong friend, Heather Muir, who created her own, more feminine version at Kiftsgate Court Garden.  While Hidcote remains true to Lawrence Johnston’s design, Kiftsgate has been handed down to three generations of women gardeners who’ve contributed to the garden in their own unique way.  

Both gardens uniquely have world-famous plants named after them: the beautiful English lavender Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ and the prolific and vigorous rose, Rosa filipes ‘Kiftsgate’, examples of which are on sale and highly visible among the planting at each breathtaking and quintessentially English garden.