Herbaceous borders are the show-stoppers of the garden. The Corona North commemorative border at Altamont Gardens is a tribute worth seeing, writes JANE POWERS

UNTIL 10 OR 20 years ago and for most of the 20th century, there was one feature that every garden of substance had to have: a herbaceous border. The tiered parade of flowering plants was the main event, the horticultural equivalent of the all-singing, all-dancing chorus line that leaves its audience overwhelmed with delight at its enthusiastic performance.

The idea of the herbaceous border was refined and brought to its peak by British plantswoman and designer Gertrude Jekyll. Her book, Colour in the Flower Garden, first published in 1908, includes several chapters on the creation and maintenance of the perfect border. Reading it today, I am struck by two things. Firstly, that she advises that borders are successful only when seasonal. She writes: “Each border or garden region to be bright for from one to three months.” And secondly, that an immense amount of work goes into creating a short burst of activity in a rather large space.

Her “main hardy flower border” at her home in Munstead Wood in Surrey was “about two hundred feet long and fourteen feet wide” (60 metres x 40 metres), taking up more space than most back gardens today. But as she had 15 acres (six hectares) of garden, and 14 gardeners to look after it, she didn’t have to mind too much about conserving space or labour.

Nowadays, when both are rarities, it’s not surprising that there is only a handful of decent herbaceous borders in Ireland. One of the most famous of those that are open to the public is the Corona North commemorative border at Altamont Gardens in Co Carlow. It was designed and planted in the millennium year by Assumpta Broomfield and her business partner, Robert Miller. It pays homage to the late owner of Altamont, who had died in the previous year.

The border, backed by a warm granite wall on one side and a traditional yew hedge on the other, is more than twice the size of Jekyll’s. It is a double border, with two face-to-face stretches of ebullient planting, each 70 metres long and seven metres deep. A wide, gravelled path separates the two, so the visitor walks between them, head swinging from side to side to look at the bursts of flowers to right and left.

Jekyll’s famous colour strategy (much imitated in later years) followed the spectrum of the rainbow, but here the long beds have their own scheme: mauve, pink and lemon facing yellow and blue in the top half of the border, and, in the lower reaches, all the blues looking coolly across the path at the hot yellow, orange and red of dahlias, daylilies and other fiery flowers. The whole display is now looked after by Miller, with some part-time help. It’s probably not as floriferous as Jekyll’s creations, but it has to perform over a longer season. “We try to have it looking good from February, with all the spring bulbs and things, right through to October and November,” he says.

The first big show of this long season – after a gentle, early spring sprinkling of snowdrops – is made by the peonies and the tulips. These latter are the poker-straight Darwin Hybrids fire-engine red ‘Apeldoorn’, canary yellow ‘Golden Apeldoorn’ and red-and-yellow striped ‘Apeldoorn’s Elite’.

Darwin tulips live longer than most hybrids, but these have shown exceptional longevity of a decade or more. The secret, says Miller, is to plant them 18 inches deep.

“Whenever I am replanting, I never hit a tulip bulb. Also, they don’t seem to divide when they are that deep. It’s when they divide that you lose the flower,” he explains.

At the other end of the year, the last hurrah comes from the late asters and aconitums, perennial sunflowers ‘Lemon Queen’ and ‘Capeknoch Star’, the towering purple eupatoriums, and the deep red autumn tones of the large sedums. Maintaining continuity is difficult, admits Miller, but so too is the sheer physicality of the work.

Digging up plants with mammoth root structures when they need renewing or moving is hard labour.

Timing of the various tasks is all-important. “You have a very small pocket of time to do something,” he says. “If you don’t do it then, you might as well forget about it until the following year.” Manuring, mulching, moving, staking, deadheading and cutting back all have their own schedule. Let’s not forget the initial ground preparation: “You should spend at least a year beforehand making sure your soil is right.” And sourcing plants: “Be very, very careful if you’re donated plants, because of scutch grass, bindweed and ground elder.”

With countless other horticultural clauses that must be observed in the making and maintaining of a herbaceous border, each one really is a not-so-small miracle.

DIARY DATE

Carlow Garden Festival takes place from today until August 7th, see carlowgardentrail.com for full details of the programme of events

Borders to visit

Corona North commemorative border at Altamont Gardens, near Ballon, Co Carlow, is open daily in summer, 10am-6pm. Admission free. Exit M9 at junction 5, continue south on N80 (towards Rosslare). Signposted after Ballon.

Other good borders to visit in Ireland:

Ballymaloe Cookery School, Shanagarry, Co Cork (cookingisfun.ie)

The Dillon Garden, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 (dillongarden.com)

Powerscourt, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow (powerscourt.ie)