Gardens to visit in spring and summer – Osborne House

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought Osborne and its estate in 1845 as a summer retreat and immediately knocked down the old house to replace it with a three-level pavilion with flag-tower – not what most of us would call a summer retreat! The estate eventually spread over eight hundred hectares, including the purchasing or building of cottages and lodges for estate workers and members of the household.

Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, designed a planting scheme that was somewhat limited by the established landscape that surrounded the house Other influences were his liking for poplar trees, as found at his family home, and the Italian fashion - which he had seen at various European courts - of lining drives and walks with evergreens like myrtle and laurel. The walled kitchen-garden and adjoining pleasure grounds in front of the house remained intact from the former owner but the upper and lower terraces, with their ornamental parterres interspersed with statues representing the seasons, were constructed under the supervision of Prince Albert himself.

Well worth a visit in spring is the Swiss Cottage Garden which was laid out in 1853, and complete with a furnished cottage, was used by the royal children to grow and sell vegetables as a practical exercise in market gardening. While this may sound remarkably innovative, their only purchaser was Prince Albert, so it was exactly the kind of nepotism that was expected from royalty!

Also worth a visit, but better later in the year, is the excellent walled fruit and flower garden which has been lovingly restored and features fruit and flower planting as an important aspect of the Osborne Estate.

Osborne photograph by ryu-one, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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