American plantsman Dan Hinkley has a new book out, about his garden at Windcliff, on Washington State’s Kitsap Peninsula, but says he’s just as inspired by England and British gardeners as the spectacular landscape at his home in the States.
Dan Hinkley is known throughout the world as one of our foremost plant explorers and plantsmen. He has created two highly regarded gardens – Heronswood and Windcliff – and the story of how one begat the other is beautifully celebrated in this new book.
In a Zoom talk to Ruislip Central Horticultural Society, Dan shared how many British gardeners had inspired him over the years. When he first moved to Windcliff, the film Enchanted April inspired the overall mood he wanted to create, having taken on a fairly blank canvas, mostly laid to lawn. After planting shelter belts of eucalyptus first, these were later replaced with other more desirable windbreak trees and shrubs that the sheltering eucalyptus helped get established. After that, the garden “slowly but surely became what I hoped it would be,” he said, adding: “It’s always rewarding when that end point is a bit closer in focus.”
In the book, Hinkley recounts the creation of the garden, the stories of the plants that fill its space and offers sage gardening advice. It’s an inspiring mix of different plants, from North American natives such as Arbutus menziesii, which so helpfully stabilises the shoreline bluffs that make up the garden’s boundary with the Puget Sound, to species from around the world.
Many South African plants star, from the graceful flowers of dieramas to colourful watsonias, explosive firework-flowered agapanthus and kniphofias, or red hot pokers. Among Dan’s favourites are the restios. “I have to credit Dan Pearson [the UK garden designer] for my appreciation for grasses,” he told the audience at Ruislip. “They capture light yet you can see through them. One of my favourite restios is Rhodocoma – they have such amazing movement year round,” he added.
His interest in unusual plants is reflected in his firm friendship with plant collectors Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones of Crûg Farm Plants in north Wales. The garden features many of the plants the couple have collected in far-flung parts of Vietnam such as the very handsome chestnut relative Aesculus wangii, and epimediums from Korea. Fellow British plant collector Roy Lancaster is also a good friend. “The three of them have made a huge impact on my life,” Dan said.
Seeing beautiful meadows in the UK drove Dan’s desire for something similar at Windcliff, albeit with an American twist, using Erythronium revolutum and Camassia leichtlinii with Veratrum californicum, when he discovered that his deep glacial soil was just too rich, and grasses constantly overpowered more delicate bulbs. “It’s a very steep learning curve to create a meadow that looks after itself with just a couple of mowings,” he said. “I’ve not conquered it but I’m getting closer every year.”
Hinkley was also good friends with British horticultural royalty, Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter, whose garden inspired features at Windcliff. Christopher Lloyd helped plant a maple in Dan’s garden on his last visit to the U.S. before he passed away. “Have somebody that you love help you plant something,” Dan says. “I’ll always have Christopher Lloyd growing in my garden.”
Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens. By Daniel J. Hinkley. Photos by Claire Takacs. £26.99/$35
Read more from Dan on The English Garden’s website, with Dan’s favourite plants for spring colour, his recommendations for long-flowering summer plants, his top plants for autumn and his picks for winter interest.
The post Dan Hinkley: new ‘Windcliff’ book out now appeared first on The English Garden.