Thousands of flowers planted during lockdown will bring new life to Chatsworth gardens

Closed to visitors until further notice during the coronavirus pandemic, the garden team is engaged in a two-month-long planting programme in the rock garden as well as the 15-acre former wilderness now known as Arcadia.

Thousands of new plants are filling the four recently-created open glades between the cascade and the Grotto Pond to the south.

At Chatsworth, the garden usually has a full time team of 25 supported by around 75 volunteers working under head of gardens and landscape, Steve Porter, but numbers have been reduced during the coronavirus pandemic.

Working in different areas and observing strict social distancing and hygiene rules, a core team of ten has, however, received helping hands from the Devonshire family with both the Duke and Duchess and their daughter-in-law Lady Burlington joining in.

Head gardener Steve said: “The Duke has been in every day cutting tulips to give to staff, and he and the Duchess have helped with planting and watering.

“They appreciate everything, their feedback has been so important.”

The new, wet glade in the Arcadia area, to be known as the Bog Garden, will gain more than 34,000 new plants and bulbs including 8,000 camassia grown onsite in Chatsworth’s own nursery.

Drifts of more than 2,000 candelabra primula in six different varieties are being planted as well as swamp cypress, royal ferns and other plants able to thrive in damp conditions.

There will also be significant work on the rock garden and its entrances.

Designer Tom Stuart Smith: “Improvements to two entrances will redefine the rock garden as a fantasy domain, full of variety, spontaneous naturalness and picturesque diversion, quite separate from the rest of the garden.”

This latest planting is part of a total of more than 300,000 new plants and bulbs included in the transformation of a 25-acre section of Chatsworth’s historic garden.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​