0:00:02 > 0:00:05Hidden away in a small corner of rural Gloucestershire
0:00:05 > 0:00:09is a garden which has achieved celebrity status.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12You can travel anywhere in the world as a gardener
0:00:12 > 0:00:14and talk about the garden at Hidcote,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18and suddenly people understand what you're talking about.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Hidcote is unique,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22and so unconventional
0:00:22 > 0:00:26that it influenced the development of English landscape design.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Well, it's like any great garden, it transports you to another world
0:00:29 > 0:00:34and you realise that that is a touch of genius.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36But the man who devoted his life
0:00:36 > 0:00:41to creating this archetypal English country garden, Lawrence Johnston,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44was in fact a lonely, eccentric American
0:00:44 > 0:00:49with a secretive and tormented personal life.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51I would have thought there was a falling out,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54as to how vocal and how violent, we shall never know.
0:00:55 > 0:00:56In this film,
0:00:56 > 0:01:01we unravel Hidcote's extraordinary creation, over a century ago,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04from a muddy field on a draughty hilltop
0:01:04 > 0:01:07to a stunningly lavish garden
0:01:07 > 0:01:10which, after a recent restoration, has become recognised
0:01:10 > 0:01:14as one of the greatest and most inspiring of all time.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Hidcote is the jewel in the National Trust crown.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37This was the first property the Trust acquired in 1948
0:01:37 > 0:01:40specifically for the garden alone,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43because of its great horticultural importance.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50The garden lies just outside the town of Chipping Campden
0:01:50 > 0:01:52in the Cotswolds.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Despite its secluded location,
0:01:55 > 0:01:57it attracts people from all over the world
0:01:57 > 0:01:59who come to see the unique design
0:01:59 > 0:02:02and constant displays of colour
0:02:02 > 0:02:04all through the year.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Hidcote is a great source of inspiration to many visitors.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Sir Roy Strong, the eminent historian,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24came here in 1974,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26just as he was about to design and build
0:02:26 > 0:02:28his own garden in Herefordshire.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32Sir Roy's winter visit made a huge impression.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39It was a complete revelation to me.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Bright blue sky,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45sun falling onto the frost,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48and that wonderful, winter, magical sort of day.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51And of course, there weren't any flowers here.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53But what it taught me immediately
0:02:53 > 0:02:57was the fundamental thing about making a garden.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02A good garden depends on how you orchestrate the terrain.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Everywhere I turned here, I'd gasp with excitement
0:03:05 > 0:03:09about the variation in the size and the shape of the rooms,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11the sense of vista and surprise.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16Taking somebody up and then you're looking at the Cotswolds landscape beyond,
0:03:16 > 0:03:17and the thrill of it.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21And turning a corner - and topiary, I fell in love with.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23All these things orchestrated,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27suddenly, you were in a completely magic land.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41Garden designer Chris Beardshaw
0:03:41 > 0:03:45was completely captivated when he first visited Hidcote
0:03:45 > 0:03:47when he was just eight years old.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51I came here with my parents,
0:03:51 > 0:03:54who had just got a National Trust membership.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57So I was dragged along, I wouldn't say kicking and screaming,
0:03:57 > 0:03:58but I was certainly dragged along.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00And it was one of those moments
0:04:00 > 0:04:03where my experience of horticulture prior to that
0:04:03 > 0:04:06suddenly started to make sense.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08And that, for me, was confirmation
0:04:08 > 0:04:10that I didn't want to do anything else in life.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13I wanted to garden, to be around gardeners
0:04:13 > 0:04:14and I wanted to work with plants.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26What makes Hidcote very different from other gardens
0:04:26 > 0:04:28is its unconventional layout.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33The entire garden can never be seen in one view.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Instead, you're taken on a journey
0:04:36 > 0:04:37through corridors of hedge
0:04:37 > 0:04:42that pass through a number of discreet cottage garden rooms.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Hidcote's head gardener, Glyn Jones,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51thinks its unique design and size
0:04:51 > 0:04:55is at the heart of the garden's success.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58I think people relate to Hidcote because,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02although it is a garden ten and half acres in size
0:05:02 > 0:05:05with at least 28 separate garden areas,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07you can break it down into pieces,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10and people can relate to a section of the garden,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13whereas they might not relate to the whole thing
0:05:13 > 0:05:15because it's beyond anybody's wildest dreams.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17But you can relate to a small section of it
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and you can take that away with you when you when you visit Hidcote
0:05:20 > 0:05:25and be inspired to go and create something at home.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33As well as a variety in the shapes and sizes of the rooms,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35the formal architecture is softened
0:05:35 > 0:05:38with plants that flower at different times,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41providing colour throughout the seasons.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47In terms of garden-making,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50it's not that vast,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53and that is why it retains this absolutely hypnotic appeal.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55People can actually still relate to it,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59whereas if you go to one of the really great stately home gardens,
0:05:59 > 0:06:00it's beyond comprehension.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11It's seen as the archetypal English garden.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15It's the English garden - as far as the rest of the world are concerned.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17It's much copied and mimicked.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19The irony, of course, is that
0:06:19 > 0:06:21it's not at all an English garden.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24It's a garden laid out by an American
0:06:24 > 0:06:26who was brought up in France,
0:06:26 > 0:06:28and yet it sits at the heart
0:06:28 > 0:06:30of the English establishment.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Hidcote's creator, Lawrence Johnston,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37was born in 1871.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40His parents were very wealthy Americans.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43His twice-widowed mother Gertrude was a socialite
0:06:43 > 0:06:47with a firm control over her son's ambitions.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Johnston was brought up in France,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52but came to Cambridge to study history at Trinity College.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59In 1900, he became a British citizen
0:06:59 > 0:07:03and promptly joined the army to fight in the Boer War.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06But seven years later,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Johnston's mother embarked on a plan
0:07:09 > 0:07:13to turn her son into an eligible gentleman farmer.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18The details of an estate in a small Gloucestershire village
0:07:18 > 0:07:19caught her eye.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21The 17th century property
0:07:21 > 0:07:25came with nearly 300 acres of farmland,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27a small walled garden
0:07:27 > 0:07:29and a dozen or so cottages.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32The purchase of Hidcote Manor
0:07:32 > 0:07:34satisfied Gertrude's ambition
0:07:34 > 0:07:38to launch her son into English society.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44They bought themselves into being minor landed gentry.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45I mean, let's face it,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47they're not up to the level of the Astors,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49so they're rather down the line.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51But it gave them status still.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Land, farm, village -
0:07:54 > 0:07:56everything came with it.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05But contrary to his mother's wishes and much to her frustration,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Johnston embarked on a plan to use the fields around the manor house
0:08:09 > 0:08:12for something far more ambitious -
0:08:12 > 0:08:14to build a garden.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17When Johnston first encountered this space,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20he must have wondered what on earth he was going to do with it
0:08:20 > 0:08:24and there's no doubt that Mrs Winthrop wanted him to be a gentleman farmer.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28She certainly didn't have notions of him being a gardener, or laying out a grand garden.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Johnston's plan was foolhardy.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35With no previous gardening experience,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38he hadn't considered Hidcote's harsh location.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44It was an absolutely ridiculous position to build a garden.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47We're at 600 feet in the North Cotswolds,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50we're in the rain shadow of the Cotswold scarp.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52We're very, very exposed,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55the wind howls across the Vale Of Evesham in the winter,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59and it can blow you sideways if you're not careful.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02So who in his right mind would build a garden here?
0:09:03 > 0:09:05That was the least of his worries.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09He still had to come up with a design.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11But at the time he sought inspiration,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14the gardening world was split by a public debate
0:09:14 > 0:09:17dubbed, "The Battle Of The Styles."
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Two opposing camps came to blows
0:09:20 > 0:09:25in a bid to define a new national style for garden design.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30One camp argued for formal gardens
0:09:30 > 0:09:33with heavy, structured architecture.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44While on the other hand,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48a case was made for a more unregimented, wild,
0:09:48 > 0:09:49naturalistic garden,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52dominated by random planting.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Johnston had the unique idea of fusing both styles,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04and he set about creating what became described as
0:10:04 > 0:10:07a wild garden in a formal setting.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17But establishing exactly how Johnston set about
0:10:17 > 0:10:19turning his ideas into reality,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21has proved difficult.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24The documentary records on this garden
0:10:24 > 0:10:26are very, very few.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29I mean, we don't know surviving plant lists
0:10:29 > 0:10:33and we have no year by year account of the garden growing at all.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37So in that sense, it's a complete mystery.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43So when the National Trust took on Hidcote over 60 years ago,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46maintaining the garden in its original form
0:10:46 > 0:10:48was challenging and costly.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50The garden was simplified
0:10:50 > 0:10:54and lost much of Johnston's unique vision and spirit.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Today, after a £3.5 million ten-year restoration,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Hidcote has almost been restored to its former glory,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08as Johnston originally intended.
0:11:10 > 0:11:11But to complete the project,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13more work is being done
0:11:13 > 0:11:17to uncover further evidence of the garden's early development.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19It's become my personal mission at Hidcote
0:11:19 > 0:11:21to discover as much as we possibly can
0:11:21 > 0:11:24about what this garden was like in its heyday
0:11:24 > 0:11:27in order for us to interpret it for our many visitors.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Because, you know, this is a Grade I listed garden.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34It's absolutely unique for plants that are hardly in the British Isles.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39This has inspired so many people over the last 70, 80 years,
0:11:39 > 0:11:43and it's important we continue to do that.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48Part of Glyn's detective work is tracking down the last few surviving people
0:11:48 > 0:11:52who remember Johnston, like his godson.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55My parents used to go and stay
0:11:55 > 0:11:59with Jonny Johnston every summer for a fortnight.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03There he is with my mother, having a picnic.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Oh, wow. We've never seen this before.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10In order to interpret the garden, I believe very strongly that
0:12:10 > 0:12:14you've almost got to put yourself in Johnston's boots
0:12:14 > 0:12:22and get out there and grow the range of plants, have the same planting policies as he had.
0:12:22 > 0:12:28With the limited evidence available, Glyn is slowly turning the clock back
0:12:28 > 0:12:33by reinstating the types of plants that Johnston first used.
0:12:33 > 0:12:39This is one of my favourites. I'll pluck it.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44This is... It's a dianthus Mrs Sinkins.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47It's a beautiful old-fashioned pink,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50but the perfume is of cloves.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55It's got a very kind of spicy perfume to it, but I just love that.
0:12:55 > 0:13:03To me, that says 1920s, 1930s, what a dianthus would have looked like in that period.
0:13:06 > 0:13:12When Johnston started creating the garden, there was little to suggest
0:13:12 > 0:13:15that one day it would be so iconic.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22When the property was purchased in 1907, there was no garden as such here.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25There was a small garden within the confines of those
0:13:25 > 0:13:29beautiful stone and brick walls which we now call the old garden.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32It may be in the early days he was cautious.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35You know, he was new to horticulture.
0:13:35 > 0:13:41He was moving slowly, cautiously, building on his skills and his knowledge.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47He started very hesitantly with little things around the house.
0:13:47 > 0:13:53And then at some stage, and I can only speak from my own experience,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55suddenly you become hooked.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57I can remember when we bought The Laskett,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00I said to my wife, "Don't talk to me about that garden".
0:14:00 > 0:14:01Well, there really wasn't one.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06But within a fortnight, I'd put wellington boots on and had become positively obsessed by it,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09and have been ever since, and I think something similar happened to him.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13Johnston became addicted.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16It was the start of an obsession which his mother would need
0:14:16 > 0:14:20deep pockets to fund, and would eventually drive them apart.
0:14:20 > 0:14:25And although he went on to create a visionary garden which broke rules
0:14:25 > 0:14:30and established a new style, he started more conventionally.
0:14:35 > 0:14:41This is one of the first parts of Hidcote as Johnston had laid it out.
0:14:41 > 0:14:48It's where Johnston was really testing himself against the climate.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Of course, we're in the confines of the old walled gardens,
0:14:50 > 0:14:55so it's quite a sedate area to start gardening in.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00In a way, the muted colours and the control, the topiary,
0:15:00 > 0:15:06all of those are Johnston starting to form his opinion of how Hidcote may eventually be.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21He wanted that old English look, so he brought topiary, and you could buy topiary then.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24I mean, the early photographs show
0:15:24 > 0:15:28yew pyramids with little birdies sitting on the top and all that sort of thing.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31Well, if you had a chequebook like he did,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34it's instant.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45But Johnston wasn't content to stop here.
0:15:45 > 0:15:52He was on a roll, and set about expanding the garden and spending more of his mother's money.
0:15:54 > 0:16:01He pushed out beyond the confines of the old walls, creating two more low-lying terraces.
0:16:04 > 0:16:12One, with formal boxed edged beds overflowing with dwarf fuchsias is still the same 100 years on.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19Then, down a few more steps, he created a pool, which in later years
0:16:19 > 0:16:23he redesigned so it could be used for bathing.
0:16:23 > 0:16:29In just a few years, Johnston's abilities as a garden designer were evident.
0:16:31 > 0:16:37Johnston's art of being able to lead someone into a space,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41tease you with a view and then tempt you in tangential directions,
0:16:41 > 0:16:42and you end up dithering,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46"do I go this way or to my original, or this way or back where I came from?"
0:16:46 > 0:16:48That's all part of the garden.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52It's that sense of drama, that sense of adventure.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59The success of Hidcote depends on a brilliant mastery of the terrain.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05The manipulation of the terrain is, I think, second to none.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09That is why it retains this absolutely hypnotic appeal.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12I can't think of anybody who
0:17:12 > 0:17:17responded to the terrain in such an absolutely brilliant way
0:17:17 > 0:17:22in getting the architecture right almost from the beginning.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32One of the most amazing things as well is that in September,
0:17:32 > 0:17:37there is a period of about one week where the sun sets
0:17:37 > 0:17:41absolutely centre in the middle of Heaven's Gate.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46It's moments like that that you just realise what
0:17:46 > 0:17:48a genius Lawrence Johnston was,
0:17:48 > 0:17:52because those things aren't accidents, that's the work of a genius.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Hidcote's position might have afforded great views,
0:18:02 > 0:18:08but the garden was on a hill and very exposed to all weathers.
0:18:11 > 0:18:18Johnston protected his plants by cleverly planting hedges for shelter, over 4.5 miles of them.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28It was enough in the early days for the gardeners to keep on top of the cutting.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36But even today, it takes the entire team over six months.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48Johnston's confidence in the garden was evident.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51His hedges provided both shelter and structure.
0:18:51 > 0:18:58But his special skill was the way he softened the formality with a natural style of informal planting.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13But Johnston's mother, Gertrude, was losing patience with her son's obsession.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16The garden was costing her a fortune.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23There would be those who would have looked around at the time
0:19:23 > 0:19:25and said, "Why on earth are you wasting your money?"
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Mrs Winthrop, of course, felt that he was wasting his money and that
0:19:28 > 0:19:33he was squandering the wealth that she and her husbands had generated.
0:19:33 > 0:19:40She was very anti this notion, this rather sort of superfluous appendage to the house.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51Well, there are two enigmatic people, aren't there?
0:19:51 > 0:19:58Mother and son, the mother, clearly, by the photograph, extremely dominant.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02Probably there must have been an enormous amount of tension there,
0:20:02 > 0:20:07and also a kind of desire to make a statement apart from her.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11It may well be that the garden is an expression to get out of the house
0:20:11 > 0:20:14and leave her stuck in the house when she was old and tottery,
0:20:14 > 0:20:18and he can get out with the gardeners, away from this crone.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26I would have thought there was a falling out.
0:20:26 > 0:20:32As to how vocal and how violent and...you know, how disagreeable
0:20:32 > 0:20:34that falling out was, we shall never know.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42Gertrude decided to stop her son's spending and put Hidcote up for sale.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50It looked likely that Johnston's creation so far was all in vain.
0:20:52 > 0:20:58But in the end, it wasn't Johnston's mother who put a halt to his gardening obsession,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00but something far more sinister.
0:21:05 > 0:21:12The First World War had broken out, and Johnston had to abandon his garden.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17In 1914, he sailed for Belgium with his regiment.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Within weeks, he was fighting for his life at Ypres.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28The First World War had a cataclysmic effect, because not only were the people
0:21:28 > 0:21:31really not in a good state when the war broke out,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34but also the great houses were taken over as hospitals.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36There were conscriptions.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38You suddenly found all the male servants went.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42The women would be left, but even they went into the factories.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46So it was a complete dissolution of the society.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Also, the gardens were dug up.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52Vegetables were needed.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55The population had to be fed. It was the end of something.
0:21:55 > 0:22:03It was the absolute end of aristocratic life as it had been known for 200 years.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06But in October 1914, Major Johnston was amongst
0:22:06 > 0:22:13the 1.5 million casualties in the first battle of Ypres.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17He'd been shot up in France,
0:22:17 > 0:22:19left for dead on the battlefield.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24He was collected by the porters and left on a pile for burial in a mass grave.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29But one of the officers that was in charge of the burial party
0:22:29 > 0:22:32spotted a flicker of movement in Johnston,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36so obviously he was rushed to the military hospital,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39and he was kind of brought back from the dead.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Thankfully, not only did Johnston survive his horrendous injuries,
0:22:45 > 0:22:51but his mother had a change of heart and decided not to sell Hidcote.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Johnston was sent home to convalesce at the King Edward VII hospital in London,
0:22:55 > 0:23:00very close to the Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02It presented him with the perfect opportunity
0:23:02 > 0:23:08to turn his thoughts back to his unfinished garden at Hidcote.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Glyn has come to see the very books that Johnston was reading for inspiration in 1915.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21The library holds one of the most extensive ranges
0:23:21 > 0:23:26of rare horticultural books in the world, some dating back hundreds of years.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28Oh, that's the date there.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35Proof of Johnston's research is plainly evident in the library's loan register.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40On this page here is a signature that I'm very familiar with, L Johnston.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43This is, you know, absolute evidence
0:23:43 > 0:23:49of the books he was reading and the books he was being inspired by
0:23:49 > 0:23:55almost 100 years ago, when he was at that critical time of laying out the garden at Hidcote.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01These were partly his inspiration, so fantastic to be here,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04probably in the same building, reading the same books as he was.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12From the long list of books that Johnston was reading in his sickbed,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15there is one that's caught Glyn's eye.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21Thomas Mawson's The Art & Craft Of Garden Making was published in 1900.
0:24:23 > 0:24:31I think Mawson, Thomas Mawson, is the biggest influence on Johnston and on Hidcote.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39There's one passage here that I think encapsulates Hidcote
0:24:39 > 0:24:41quite well, actually.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45It says, "the arrangements should suggest a series of apartments
0:24:45 > 0:24:50"rather than a panorama which can be grasped in one view".
0:24:50 > 0:24:55And that's really interesting because Hidcote is a journey.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00You can't see it from one spot anywhere in the garden. You've got to get into the garden.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04You've got to travel through it in order to get a feeling for it,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06to understand it and just to enjoy it.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12I think that passage really does encapsulate what Hidcote is all about.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Johnston's skill was to take these themes,
0:25:17 > 0:25:19distil the best elements down
0:25:19 > 0:25:24and then shrink them to a manageable scale within his garden.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29This isn't a garden which copies other gardens.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33There are suggestions of others, but actually, this is really quite pure.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37At the end of the First World War,
0:25:37 > 0:25:42Johnston's elderly mother was in poor health, and chose to spend
0:25:42 > 0:25:44her time in the south of France,
0:25:44 > 0:25:48leaving her son free to return to his garden.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51It was the start of a crucial period in Hidcote's development.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58It's really only after he comes out of active service...
0:25:58 > 0:26:01He's a retired army officer
0:26:01 > 0:26:06with an abundant income, and he turns his attention
0:26:06 > 0:26:11to garden making at Hidcote on a quite substantial scale.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19Up till now, Johnston had relied on a local source of unskilled labour.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22But given his ambitions for the garden,
0:26:22 > 0:26:26he now needed professional help to turn his plans into reality.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32In the 1920s, I think the main shift in this garden was that
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Johnston was given the confidence to start to garden,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39to start to design, to start to express himself.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42And that confidence came, I think, largely from one individual.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Johnston employed Frank Adams as his first head gardener.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Adams had worked at Windsor Castle for King George V -
0:26:53 > 0:26:57qualifications which no doubt impressed his new employer.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02At that point, there seems to be a huge gear shift in the way that the garden developed.
0:27:02 > 0:27:03It's much more ambitious.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06It's a much more integral design.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09There's more integrity to the whole structure,
0:27:09 > 0:27:11a cohesion between the spaces.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14So perhaps those abstract, somewhat whimsical theatrical thoughts
0:27:14 > 0:27:19that Johnston was well known for were made real.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23The horticulture was dragged into them by Adams.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Johnston was probably the inspiration, the man that
0:27:27 > 0:27:31came up with the big ideas for the structure and the design.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34But I think Adams was the horticulturist, was the gardener.
0:27:34 > 0:27:35He was refining the garden.
0:27:35 > 0:27:42He was making the garden from being a great garden to being an outstanding garden.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Adams had the practical knowledge to help Johnston realise
0:27:49 > 0:27:51his flashes of inspiration.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56This area of the garden is the great exploration
0:27:56 > 0:28:00of horticulture that Lawrence Johnston was trying to get at.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05This is about one man's love with his horticulture
0:28:05 > 0:28:07and with his plant material.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13So Adams, I think, injects the notion of cohesion,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17of fine horticulture, and of romance and theatre.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24Their working relationship was horticultural symmetry.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37By the mid-'20s, Johnston's domineering mother was nearly 80,
0:28:37 > 0:28:41spending all her time on the French Riviera, where she eventually died.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48Her death was expected, but Johnston was shocked
0:28:48 > 0:28:52to discover that in her will, he was cut from inheriting any of
0:28:52 > 0:28:56her immense capital, only to receive an allowance...
0:28:56 > 0:29:00which nevertheless left him a very wealthy man.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04There must have been a big divide there at some...at some point.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09Something which reflects that divide is the fact that she ring-fenced...
0:29:09 > 0:29:13ring-fenced the Johnston capital, so that he could not get his hands on it.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21Johnston on the surface appeared to have everything -
0:29:21 > 0:29:24a hefty income, status and an exceptional garden,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27which by the early '30s had gained recognition
0:29:27 > 0:29:30and was open to the public two or three days a year.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36But Johnston didn't enjoy the attention.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38He was a solitary character.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42One of the reasons this garden exists as it does today,
0:29:42 > 0:29:46one of the reasons that it is such an extraordinary piece of work,
0:29:46 > 0:29:50is because Johnston was so dysfunctional as an individual,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54in terms of his relationships, in terms of bonding with individuals -
0:29:54 > 0:29:57his dogs were the closest thing he came to.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01And I think that really does explain an aspect
0:30:01 > 0:30:05of his character - he was happier with animals,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08and they must have given him the love and affection
0:30:08 > 0:30:11which he probably didn't get from his mother, who looked like
0:30:11 > 0:30:15an old battleaxe, er, and didn't really get from anybody else.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20I think Johnston has been described as a closed book,
0:30:20 > 0:30:23he only associated with people
0:30:23 > 0:30:27that I think he felt were worthy of his company.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30And I think when you walk around the garden, the design of the garden
0:30:30 > 0:30:34reflects that as well, because it's a very inward-looking garden.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38You can't see beyond the high hedges so you're forced to study the design
0:30:38 > 0:30:44and to study the plants that grow within this kind of design landscape.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48It's kind of not embracing the wider world beyond the confines of the garden.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51The garden is all that's important in his life at that moment in time.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Despite his eligibility, Johnston was still single,
0:30:58 > 0:31:00and this inevitably led to speculation.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05I mean he may well have been completely asexual -
0:31:05 > 0:31:08and really no interest either way.
0:31:10 > 0:31:16Who knows whether he sort of popped down to the dockside and picked up a sailor? I don't know!
0:31:21 > 0:31:23I mean, in that period, to be gay,
0:31:23 > 0:31:27in the aftermath of the Oscar Wilde incident...
0:31:27 > 0:31:31I mean, people might have known, but it would never be referred to,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35and it would certainly be regarded as beyond the pale within the establishment classes.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43Johnston was however close to one female companion, Norah Lyndsay,
0:31:43 > 0:31:45a well-respected garden designer
0:31:45 > 0:31:49who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle at her Oxfordshire manor house.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58Norah and Johnston shared a love of all things horticultural.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01She offered advice and support as Hidcote was developing.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07But their friendship led to gossip that Norah's daughter Nancy
0:32:07 > 0:32:10was in fact Johnston's love child...
0:32:12 > 0:32:15..a rumour strenuously denied.
0:32:15 > 0:32:21If he had been able to forge strong relationships, and had had family,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25and had had an extended social network,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29perhaps his attention wouldn't have been quite as focused on the garden.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33We wouldn't have got the delivery of the product that we have today.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41Johnston's multi-faceted personality has revealed a multi-faceted garden,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44which had broad appeal. It's a perfect piece of work.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49The garden was the marriage and the family he never had.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54It was a kind of substitute. And I see nothing wrong with that.
0:32:56 > 0:33:02Johnston was very selective in his friendships, mainly preferring the company of other well-connected
0:33:02 > 0:33:06gardening enthusiasts, like Mark Fenwick, who'd created
0:33:06 > 0:33:12his own highly-regarded garden - Abbotswood, near Stow-on-the-Wold.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Fenwick used his influence among his high society chums
0:33:29 > 0:33:33to get Johnston elected a member of an elite gardening club.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37Well, the Gardening Society was founded in 1920.
0:33:37 > 0:33:43It's a male society, the only female that's ever been allowed
0:33:43 > 0:33:46to be elected to the Gardening Society is the Queen Mother.
0:33:46 > 0:33:52So I think that gives the flavour of it, it's a group of people who are basically
0:33:52 > 0:33:55I suppose the equivalent of landed gentry,
0:33:55 > 0:33:58they have estates and means to maintain quite substantial gardens.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02It would have given him the sort of status that he desired.
0:34:02 > 0:34:08He would be accepted in the gardening equivalent of being
0:34:08 > 0:34:12elected to Boodles or Whites or one of the smarter,
0:34:12 > 0:34:14upmarket, London men's clubs.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20This cosy club of titled, wealthy gardeners
0:34:20 > 0:34:25gave Johnston an opportunity to flex his horticultural muscles.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28He wanted the best possible plants for his garden
0:34:28 > 0:34:30and he was prepared to travel
0:34:30 > 0:34:32all the way round the world to collect these
0:34:32 > 0:34:35or to send people to collect them on his behalf.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38But what was important, I'm sure, to him, was that
0:34:38 > 0:34:42he had better plants than Fenwick down at Abbotswood and...
0:34:42 > 0:34:47It's kind of keeping up with the Joneses, I think.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Johnston became obsessed with acquiring newly-discovered
0:34:50 > 0:34:55and rare plants - and at a time when plant hunting was at its peak.
0:34:58 > 0:35:05It was a period I suppose where we were able to harvest the best from the imperial, the Empire,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07that we are dragging ideas in,
0:35:07 > 0:35:12we're bringing plants in, we're very eclectic in our thoughts.
0:35:12 > 0:35:18And it's difficult to imagine Johnston creating Hidcote in any other time
0:35:18 > 0:35:22than in the 1920s, because it was such a vibrant period.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29Johnston's wealth enabled him to sponsor and travel on a number of
0:35:29 > 0:35:32plant-hunting expeditions all over the world.
0:35:39 > 0:35:40On one trip to South Africa,
0:35:40 > 0:35:43he even took his cook and butler.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48Johnson's plant-hunting trips, er, they fall into two categories,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51I suppose - those which genuinely contributed something,
0:35:51 > 0:35:56and those which were a little bit of a horticultural jolly, one suspects.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Certainly from a plant-hunter's perspective,
0:36:00 > 0:36:06he wasn't hugely respected or even wanted on those expeditions.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11But these trips gave Johnston a mass of new, exotic varieties,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14which he planted back at Hidcote in areas like the rock garden.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23This one area of the garden is coming to the end of a major restoration.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30This was a special rock garden, it was, you know,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33the creme de la creme of private rock gardens in the British Isles.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Glyn and his deputy, Vicky, want to find out exactly what
0:36:38 > 0:36:42varieties Johnston planted here when the rock garden was first created.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47But most of the records have been lost or destroyed
0:36:47 > 0:36:50and there are only a few photographs,
0:36:50 > 0:36:52so they have to play plant detectives.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58There's just little titbits to go on, so it just makes you, in a way, more curious to find out more,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00and go rummaging, to find more information.
0:37:02 > 0:37:08The one place that might have some clues is the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11Here, they have records dating back hundreds of years
0:37:11 > 0:37:15which document the plant-hunting trips Johnston took part in -
0:37:15 > 0:37:20like an ill-fated expedition to Yunnan province in China,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24where Johnston joined the highly respected botanist George Forrest -
0:37:24 > 0:37:29the Indiana Jones of the plant world.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33The journey they undertook was just immense -
0:37:33 > 0:37:37just getting there would have taken weeks, if not months.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Forrest led the expedition, which by all accounts was
0:37:40 > 0:37:45fraught with danger, often disguising himself as a local.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47He didn't even have waterproof clothing,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51and it does rain a lot when you're up in the mountains, and there would've been no vaccines.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55I just wonder how often was he ill or was he just so hardy
0:37:55 > 0:37:59that he was exposed to everything and he didn't become ill?
0:37:59 > 0:38:04George Forrest bitterly regretted allowing Johnston to join the Chinese expedition.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11The Botanic Garden's archivist, Graham Hardy, has found Forrest's
0:38:11 > 0:38:15original letters of complaint sent back to a colleague at Edinburgh.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22On the base of the first page, this is what he writes,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25"Had I raked GB..." - that's Great Britain,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27"with a small-toothed comb,
0:38:27 > 0:38:30"I couldn't have found a worse companion than Johnston.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33"And I cannot say how often during the past three months I have
0:38:33 > 0:38:40"cursed myself for being so foolish in consenting to him accompanying me.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43"I have indeed paid for my folly.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47"A person more utterly selfish I have yet to meet,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51"and I'm not the only one here who thinks so,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54"for none like him."
0:38:55 > 0:38:58Johnston was used to travelling in style and comfort,
0:38:58 > 0:39:02and it was this that had no doubt triggered Forrest's outbursts.
0:39:06 > 0:39:11In spite of the bickering, they amassed a collection of new plants and seeds,
0:39:11 > 0:39:15all of which were recorded and compiled in the Edinburgh archives.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18So any other information on these trips, expeditions,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22if there's anything known, would be really quite interesting.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26These records list in detail every type of seed and plant
0:39:26 > 0:39:30collected on Johnston's expedition and where they were distributed.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35Aquilegia Alpina - you've got that on the rock garden now, we've got that one.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38We were aware that Edinburgh were sending out seeds and
0:39:38 > 0:39:41plants and cuttings, but you don't realise actually
0:39:41 > 0:39:45how many seeds and cuttings until you look through the records, and to how many people.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49And it was all over the world, and it was botanic gardens,
0:39:49 > 0:39:51and it was private people that had a lot of money.
0:39:54 > 0:39:59Glyn and Vicky hope these books will hold the key to revealing which plants Johnston was collecting
0:39:59 > 0:40:04so they can reinstate the same varieties in the rock garden back at Hidcote.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06Ah!
0:40:06 > 0:40:08Interesting!
0:40:08 > 0:40:12We've come across one entry, here, 1949, which we don't seem to have
0:40:12 > 0:40:17documented in our kind of survey documents.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21So these are all plants... This is quite exciting really, cos none of
0:40:21 > 0:40:25these plants we've ever known to have been grown at Hidcote in the past.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29So, again, it's a new shopping list for us to start trawling through
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and to see if any of these plants will fit in the garden today
0:40:32 > 0:40:34with some of the projects that we're doing.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39So any of those numbers there that refer to potentially sub-alpine or
0:40:39 > 0:40:42alpine material, with the east bank of the rock garden,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45there's plants there that we can trial and grow on that area
0:40:45 > 0:40:47to see how they survive.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51Can we stop here all weekend, just cross-referencing these numbers?!
0:40:53 > 0:40:57Johnston might not have been a popular travelling companion,
0:40:57 > 0:40:59but his involvement did have benefits.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05But there's no doubt that the purse he was able to provide
0:41:05 > 0:41:11facilitated the introduction of huge numbers of very, very garden-worthy plants -
0:41:11 > 0:41:16plants which we still enjoy at the heart of our gardens today.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24Johnston had collected a wealth of new plant material, which he packed into the garden.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33Today, Hidcote is home to over 4,000 species, and Glyn has to
0:41:33 > 0:41:37make sure all the garden team's plant knowledge is up to scratch...
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Big dahlia as well in the background there, that's one of my favourites.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45..including the apprentice known by the team as Scouse John.
0:41:45 > 0:41:51Right, Jonny, we've got a plant that's incredibly important to our collection at Hidcote -
0:41:51 > 0:41:52this yellow-flowered one here.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Now I would hope you know this one!
0:41:55 > 0:41:58- Hypericum Hidcote! - Absolutely, well done!
0:41:58 > 0:42:03It is, that's so important to Hidcote because it's one of the plants that
0:42:03 > 0:42:07Johnston selected as of being of great garden merit.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11And almost every garden in the country now
0:42:11 > 0:42:13has probably got a Hypericum Hidcote.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22- Anything you know about this one? - Is this an astilbe?
0:42:22 > 0:42:28No, it's not, it's from New Zealand, it's a southern hemisphere plant.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32Erm, this one, it's a Hebe, and it's one that is called Hebe Hidcote.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36So it's a lovely one with lots of different colours on it.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41When the flowers first emerge, it's a lovely kind of lilacy-blue,
0:42:41 > 0:42:44but they fade all the way through to white, you see.
0:42:44 > 0:42:50So it goes all the way through that transition, and it's a bombproof plant, you can do anything with it,
0:42:50 > 0:42:55you can prune it almost off to your ankles, and it will always come back again, you can grow it high,
0:42:55 > 0:42:58it's evergreen, lovely kind of, you know, lush foliage on it,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02and it probably starts flowering in May and it goes right through
0:43:02 > 0:43:05until the middle of winter - a great value plant again.
0:43:08 > 0:43:14It's just absolutely awe-inspiring every day, you're constantly rewarded, you know - the plants,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18the hard landscaping like the hedges and the gazebos
0:43:18 > 0:43:19and all the different bits,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22it's just, it's just so inspiring and so beautiful.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29Now lacecaps, hydrangeas, produce male and female flowers.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33When the female flowers are young, they're upright like that, kind of
0:43:33 > 0:43:37like saucers, waiting to collect the pollen, to be pollinated.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40And then once the female flower has been pollinated,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43do you know what she does to the male?
0:43:43 > 0:43:45For a wild guess I'll say she turns her back on him!
0:43:45 > 0:43:48She does! Yes, absolutely, look!
0:43:48 > 0:43:52You can see, she's, once she's pollinated,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54she turns upside down, so you see this one here,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58not yet been pollinated, so she's upright, expecting pollen.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01But these older flowers here that were born a few weeks earlier,
0:44:01 > 0:44:03she's turned her back on the male.
0:44:03 > 0:44:09But I love stories like that, it's kind of...sexual encounters of the floral kind!
0:44:09 > 0:44:11At this stage of me knowledge of gardens,
0:44:11 > 0:44:15this is best garden I've ever been to or know about.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19Erm, so to be training here, it's just fantastic.
0:44:22 > 0:44:28Some less hardy varieties that Johnston collected needed protection from the Gloucestershire frosts,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32so he specially built a plant house.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37After the Second World War, it became dilapidated and was eventually demolished.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46But using rare photographs taken back in the '30s as reference, the plant house has now been
0:44:46 > 0:44:50faithfully rebuilt to exactly how it was in Johnston's day.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59Ha-ha! Come on, you've got to do your best now, Jas!
0:45:01 > 0:45:05I think he'd be proud that we've actually put the original building back,
0:45:05 > 0:45:09and we've respected the history and the design of the original building.
0:45:09 > 0:45:16Today the plant house is being opened by gardening celebrity Roy Lancaster.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21This is for Hidcote, and Lawrence Johnston!
0:45:21 > 0:45:26CHEERING Excellent!
0:45:26 > 0:45:29Never have I seen anything quite like this,
0:45:29 > 0:45:31outside of a botanic garden.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Er, this wonderful structure here is absolutely superb.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38I can well believe that if Johnston was to walk in
0:45:38 > 0:45:43at the back of this group tonight, and look from a distance, he'd be happy to see some of
0:45:43 > 0:45:48the plants that he originally put in here, still growing on the wall.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52Johnston's problem was there simply wasn't the space or
0:45:52 > 0:45:57the right climate for some of his subtropical collections.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00But he had the perfect solution.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06Every autumn, Johnston would leave Hidcote in his chauffeured Bentley
0:46:06 > 0:46:10and drive down to the sun-kissed French Riviera at Menton,
0:46:10 > 0:46:15spending the winter months in his secluded villa, Serre de La Madone.
0:46:20 > 0:46:26Johnston bought the property in the 1920s and built the garden from scratch over a 25-year period.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32The favourable climate was perfect for a whole range of exotic plants
0:46:32 > 0:46:38he'd collected on his trips that would never have survived the colder English weather.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Glyn has come over to France as he thinks it holds the key
0:46:46 > 0:46:50to finding out more about Johnston's illusive character.
0:46:53 > 0:46:59This place is so important to round the circle, in the life of Lawrence Johnston.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08There are even surviving specimens in the garden dating back 80 years.
0:47:08 > 0:47:14It's a Banksia, this wonderful, southern hemisphere shrub, tree,
0:47:14 > 0:47:18which has these magnificent kind of soft lemon-yellow flowers,
0:47:18 > 0:47:23which once they're faded, you get almost like pine cones, fruiting bodies,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26which when a forest fire comes through, they get baked
0:47:26 > 0:47:30and the seed is disseminated onto clean virgin ground
0:47:30 > 0:47:33from which they germinate and new ones are born.
0:47:33 > 0:47:38I think this plant kind of typifies just why it was important
0:47:38 > 0:47:42that Major Johnston got a garden down here in the south of France,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45because it was a canvas on which he could grow
0:47:45 > 0:47:50all these magnificent and very unusual tender plants outdoors
0:47:50 > 0:47:55without any heat. It really is a plantsman's playground,
0:47:55 > 0:47:57one of which you can spoil yourself totally in.
0:47:59 > 0:48:05Johnston employed 23 staff at the villa, including 11 gardeners.
0:48:08 > 0:48:13Martin Smith, president of the Menton Garden Society,
0:48:13 > 0:48:18is taking Glyn to meet the last member of Johnston's staff still alive.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25Freda Bottin looked after Johnston in his later life.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29He's very ill and very old.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35Her father, Alfredo, was Johnston's butler for 25 years.
0:48:35 > 0:48:43In your father's role working in the villa here, what sort of tasks do you think he enjoyed doing the most?
0:48:43 > 0:48:48Er, I don't know, he enjoyed to work for Monsieur Johnston.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50Monsieur Johnston was...
0:48:50 > 0:48:54He have a great admiration for him.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59Freda got to know Johnston probably better than anyone else.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Il etait shy. He was very timid.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15You mentioned Major Johnston having lots of parties here - I mean, did he enjoy the parties and...?
0:49:15 > 0:49:16No!
0:49:16 > 0:49:18- He didn't?- No!
0:50:02 > 0:50:09By the 1950s, Johnston was showing signs of dementia and Freda helped with his full-time care.
0:50:20 > 0:50:25He was bedridden for three years?
0:50:25 > 0:50:27On a drip feed for a long, long time.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29Voila Monsieur Johnston.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31And all his staff in constant attendance.
0:50:33 > 0:50:38In the spring of 1958, after a long illness, Johnston died, aged 86.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43His funeral was held in France and later his body was brought back to England.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47I closed his eyes.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41I do feel like we know a lot more about his character now
0:51:41 > 0:51:43than we did just a few hours ago.
0:51:43 > 0:51:48I mean the garden and the plants I now believe were the whole purpose to his life.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52You know, I guess the plants were his friends, and he can communicate
0:51:52 > 0:51:56better with the plants than he used to do with human beings.
0:52:03 > 0:52:08After Johnston died, the National Trust's challenge was to retain
0:52:08 > 0:52:12his vision and maintain the huge numbers of plants in the garden.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16- How long have you been here? - Er, just over a year.
0:52:16 > 0:52:21Some are very rare and Johnston is credited for personally introducing
0:52:21 > 0:52:24them into the UK - and must be preserved.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30It's one of the plants that Johnston would have brought back
0:52:30 > 0:52:35from those plant-hunting expeditions. Have you taken cuttings from it before?
0:52:35 > 0:52:38- No, Chris, I haven't. - Well, what you're looking for
0:52:38 > 0:52:41is a non-flowering shoot - that's a good specimen there.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45Just take out the right-hand stem if you can.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48That's it, perfect. So let's take it back to the bench
0:52:48 > 0:52:50and we'll chop it up a little bit more!
0:52:52 > 0:52:56This is a plant that Lawrence would have handled himself.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00Johnston would have probably, if not planted it, he'd have positioned it,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03and would've had a say in where it went in the garden,
0:53:03 > 0:53:09but of course even better than that, he'd have had a say in how it came to these shores in the first place.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11So it's hugely important.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16On one hand, from a purely horticultural perspective, it's just a mahonia cutting,
0:53:16 > 0:53:18but on the other hand, it's a piece of gardening history.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22This is our gardening heritage, and what we're doing is
0:53:22 > 0:53:26propagating it to make sure that that heritage goes forward
0:53:26 > 0:53:28and is still there for, you know,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31my children or your children to be able to experience.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35But you've got such a wonderful opportunity, working here.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37You can go anywhere in the world
0:53:37 > 0:53:40after your careership here, and talk to people about Hidcote,
0:53:40 > 0:53:45and doors will open, because you've trained at the best English garden.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48So I'm very envious, actually. You've got my perfect job.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Once Scouse John's apprenticeship ends, his dream is to get
0:53:54 > 0:53:58a full-time job with the rest of the gardening team at Hidcote.
0:53:58 > 0:54:03He's fitting in well, but the team has spotted an uncanny resemblance.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05You look at him, and physically,
0:54:05 > 0:54:10he's the same height, he's the same kind of build.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Er, Johnston wore a moustache.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Dare one say slightly receding - John won't thank me for saying that!
0:54:16 > 0:54:21But, he was and there is a real, real resemblance between John and
0:54:21 > 0:54:26Johnston, and the garden team make a bit of a joke out of it actually, we call him Young Johnnie, so...!
0:54:32 > 0:54:40Young Johnnie not only looks like Johnston, but it turns out he's an Edwardian junkie.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46I'm interested in the whole era, really.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48You know, the music, the gardens.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51It's quite bizarre that I've ended up working
0:54:51 > 0:54:54at a garden which was created in that time.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58And its creator, Lawrence Johnston, was one of the big
0:54:58 > 0:55:00garden creators of that era.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05Most of the staff, you know, find it really bizarre.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09You know, it's like Lawrence is coming back through the medium of a young Scouser!
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Lawrence Johnston was buried alongside his mother
0:55:23 > 0:55:25in a village not far from Hidcote.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32His modest epitaph is simple -
0:55:32 > 0:55:35Gifted gardener and horticulturist.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Much loved by all his friends.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42He may not have had the good fortune
0:55:42 > 0:55:46to have the sort of relationship which one would expect a man
0:55:46 > 0:55:52to have - fulfilled emotional and spiritual relationship with another human being.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57But I think that he would look down from above
0:55:57 > 0:56:00and get huge gratification
0:56:00 > 0:56:05about the fact that he had given it to everyone,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09through his garden, through the miracle of creating this garden.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13It's a lovely legacy, it's beautiful! It's a beautiful thing.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18I think it would surprise him, and he'd be rather shy about it, embarrassed.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31If Johnston was able to follow a coach party through Hidcote Manor...
0:56:32 > 0:56:34..I think he'd be horrified.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37I think he'd be horrified not at the quality of the garden.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40He'd be horrified at the number of people who are visiting.
0:56:40 > 0:56:46This wasn't ever intended as a garden to take large visitor numbers.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48This was a garden laid out for one man.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53BIRDSONG
0:56:55 > 0:57:02We're closer today to understanding Hidcote Manor than we've ever been.
0:57:02 > 0:57:09And the restoration has to continue in order for us to get the true picture of Johnston and his garden.
0:57:11 > 0:57:17And I think that hunger for knowledge and an understanding of who he was, and where he came from,
0:57:17 > 0:57:21what inspired him, will just keep us driving to learn as much as we can.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24We're not naive about it, we'll never know everything.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35Because of Hidcote, because of, er, this man's creation, erm,
0:57:35 > 0:57:37you know, I've found a new life,
0:57:37 > 0:57:41I'm destined to spend the rest of me days as a gardener.
0:57:41 > 0:57:47Erm, I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing now
0:57:47 > 0:57:49than working at Hidcote.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53Erm, you know, it's absolutely incredible what this man's creation
0:57:53 > 0:57:55has done to my life.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09Johnston's garden is now over 100 years old
0:58:09 > 0:58:11and although other gardens during that time
0:58:11 > 0:58:14have contributed to the development of new styles
0:58:14 > 0:58:18in garden design, it's Hidcote that's regarded as the model
0:58:18 > 0:58:22of inspiration all over the world.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25And though we don't fully understand the man that created it,
0:58:25 > 0:58:31Hidcote is held up as one of the greatest garden icons of the 20th century.
0:58:53 > 0:58:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:55 > 0:58:57E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk