Woodland Garden & Wellingtonia Walk
The woodland garden is a surprising feature of Doddington Place Gardens as it is extremely unusual to find acid soil high up on the chalky North Downs.
At first sight one could be forgiven for thinking that the woodland garden was contemporaneous with the house. But it was only in the 1960s that it was created, following the discovery of three acres of deep acid loam, kept moist in the central section by underground springs.
A wide variety of acid-loving trees and shrubs has been planted, including camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas, an aralia, Davidia involucrata, Styrax japanoica, eucryphia and acers, as well as many bulbs and herbaceous plants.
We have recently been adding new plants to the woodland incuding several magnolias such as the delicately scented Magnolia wilsonii. Other plants include Viburnum plicatum 'Mariessii', Amelanchier Canadensis and Kalmia latifolia.
In late May/early June the woodland garden is at its most spectacular.
Wellingtonia Walk
Sequoia gigantea, known in this country as Wellingtonia and in the United States as Washingtonia, were introduced into Britain in 1853 and soon became fashionable to plant them on estates. The Wellingtonias at Doddington date from this period and must have been planted by Sir John Croft.
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