Sissinghurst’s Series to Explore the Evolution of English Gardens
This year’s theme, Cultivating Beauty: The Evolution of the English Garden, invites audiences to hear from some of the UK’s most prominent garden experts to learn their views, top tips and garden guidance on the many ways ‘beauty’ continues to reflect our changing cultural and environmental landscapes.
Speaking this year at Sissinghurst are activist and gardener Tayshan Hayden-Smith, respected landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith, gardener and floral artist Arthur Parkinson, renowned plantswoman Derry Watkins, leading garden designer Jo Thompson, and acclaimed landscape designer Charlotte Harris.
Each speaker has a specific theme linked to their own interests and expertise with just 45 tickets per talk:
- Tayshan Hayden-Smith – Closing the Green Gap (12 Sept, 3–4pm): Activist and founder of Grow to Know discusses the divide between public and private green space and the power of gardens in challenging societal boundaries.
- Tom Stuart-Smith – Finding a Language: One Garden Designer’s Journey (15 Sept, 2–3pm): One of Britain’s most admired landscape designers shares insights from a career dedicated to sensitivity, ecology, and layered design.
- Arthur Parkinson – The emotional power of nature (26 Sept, 3–4pm): Gardener, author, and floral artist paints a vivid portrait of nature’s beauty through bold blooms and emotionally rich planting.
- Derry Watkins – Late Summer Colour (28 Sept, 2–3pm): Celebrated plantswoman explores vibrant displays and seasonal transitions in late summer garden planting.
- Jo Thompson – Beauty and Romanticism in the English Garden (29 Sept, 2–3pm): Leading designer unpacks how structure, texture, and atmosphere evoke beauty in even the smallest spaces.
- Charlotte Harris – Gardens of Belonging and Connection (3 Oct, 2–3pm): Acclaimed landscape designer shares her philosophy on gardens that nurture both people and planet.
Image by – Rachel Warne
General Manager, Philip Barnes, explains the deeper purpose behind the series: “People I speak to generally consider gardens to be about plants and horticulture. But gardens are emotional spaces. The Sissinghurst Series was born from a desire to explore that emotional depth with the finest minds in garden design, people who challenge, inspire, and reimagine what both gardens and beauty can be.”
This philosophy echoes the original vision of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, who created Sissinghurst as a place where formal structure met informal abundance, and where beauty was not just visual but deeply personal. As Vita herself wrote in The Observer: “Every garden-maker should be an artist along his own lines. That is the only possible way to create a garden, irrespective of size or wealth.” (The Observer, 1953)
The Sissinghurst Series continues that legacy by inviting today’s designers to reflect on what beauty means in a changing world and how gardens can move us, heal us and connect us. Tickets are £25 per person and include full entry to Sissinghurst. For tickets and more information, visit nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/kent/sissinghurst-castle-garden/the-sissinghurst-series.
