When thinking of Rosemoor I am sure the first thing that comes to mind is the garden with its many designed garden rooms full of plant gems and colourful displays along with ornamental trees planted in the arboretums. And yes, these are the main draw for our visitors to explore and enjoy and for the focus for our staff to maintain and tend. However, the gardens only cover 45 acres of the estate we manage, we have a further 120 acres of woodland in our care and, currently, only 20 acres is open to our visitors.
When the RHS was gifted the garden in 1988 only a small proportion of woodland came with the gift; but in the late 1990s much of the surrounding woodland came up for sale, so a membership fundraising initiative was instigated, and the woodlands were bought. Now they encircle the garden landscape.
This showed great foresight, as how the garden sits in the wooded valley is in my mind what makes Rosemoor such a special place; we garden utilising the woodland backdrop to enhance the drama of the garden. In Japanese garden design using the ‘borrowed landscape view’ is a technique which is well practised, it gives the illusion of space, creates the sense of place and bonds the garden to the landscape in which it sits.
Much of our woodlands are classified as plantations on ancient woodland sites or PAWS for short. These are sites that have a long history of woodland cover, they are ancient semi-natural woodlands on which the original, natural woodland was cleared and replaced by a plantation of either native or exotic species, usually for timber production.
To be classed as a true ancient woodland site, the area must have been under continuous tree cover since around 1600. Across the UK this type of woodland is scarce and only covers 2.5 per cent of the country. These are special places; and although our original tree cover is no longer there, the soil and understory still hold the promise of life and of being able to be restored to what it once was.
For many years we have been gradually removing the conifer crop as it comes to a harvestable size; by thinning in strips rather than clear felling large swathes you can manage the regrowth of the understory - let too much light in and the brambles will take hold.
Once the trees have gone plants called ancient woodland indicators hopefully will emerge. These plants tend to take years to spread - some of the most common include wood anemone, bluebells and wood sorrel, along with guelder rose and wood spurge. Their presence shows that the seed bank is still in the soil and over time, and with care, can be restored to create a more diverse woodland.
Leaving dead wood is another important thing to do, this supports so many creatures and fungi, helping to support the whole ecosystem of a healthy woodland.
We are replanting a small percentage of evergreens, these add to the look of the landscape in winter and help provide shelter along with different habitats. In our lower woodland walk we have planted Sequoia sempervirens the coastal redwood from California. This is a tree which should again cope well with the changing climate.
We are fortunate that mature English oaks stand around the plantation conifers. When areas are cleared, a lot of natural regeneration occurs, as the acorns from these oaks find a spot to grow. This does create such a natural look to the landscape, rather than the linear planting used in new woodlands.
So, we are well underway in what will be a long journey to help restore the woodlands in our landscape; but the signs are positive, and it is very satisfying to think that we have had a hand in doing this. We can only just imagine what our small Devon valley will look like in years to come.
Jon Webster is the curator at RHS Garden Rosemoor
