How to create a white garden inspired by Sissinghurst’s enduringly magical design
Sissinghurst’s much-admired White Garden is the most famous and iconic part of this Kent garden, which was originally created by Vita Sackville-West
Although Sissinghurst’s gardens extend to five acres, the individual rooms that Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson divided it into are much smaller, making them full of inspiration for visitors who long to recreate a little bit of Sissinghurst’s magic at home.
The White Garden, which peaks in early summer, has been widely imitated by gardeners inspired by its beautifully curated colour scheme. Be inspired by white garden ideas with Sissinghurst’s careful balance of green, silver, and white plants, which produces one of its most striking gardens.
There is a freshness and lightness produced by a mix of bulbs, annuals, biennials, herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and climbers, as well as neatly trimmed hedges of box and yew.
The White Garden at Sissinghurst
To get a feel for its shape and structure, a winter visit is best at Sissinghurst. The maze-like patterns of box-edged borders and brick-and-slab pathways will shimmer with a sprinkling of frost. In terms of the planting, the borders’ composition changes through the year, but the use of just one colour is timeless, elegant, simple, and pure.
The textures, shapes, and forms of the plants result in a harmonious sea of white froth. It is difficult to maintain such a freshness, since white very quickly fades, and can look unsightly when it turns a tatty brown, which is why the White Garden has to be maintained to such a high level. Here, as in other areas of the garden, Vita liked vertical accents, so plants such as delphiniums, lilies, foxgloves, and veronicastrum shoot up through mounds of textural plants. The towering, creamy-white, densely packed flower spikes of lupins are perfect, too.
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Graceful and elegant, this small, spreading weeping pear features delicate cascading branches clothed in striking silver-grey, willow-like foliage. In spring, it bursts into a froth of creamy white flowers during April and May, later producing clusters of inedible green fruit. Perfect as a specimen tree for compact urban gardens, it thrives in pollution and alkaline soils, making it an excellent choice for contemporary planting schemes with soft white and silver tones.
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At Sissinghurst, it is Rosa ‘Mulliganii’ that smothers the arbour’s metal canopy, but sadly that has been discontinued; however, Bobbie James is a spectacular alternative, vigorous rambler. This rose quickly scales sheds, walls, and other large structures, creating a breathtaking display when in full bloom. Its masses of small, semi-double white flowers are lightly scented with a musky fragrance that attracts bees throughout the season. As the flowers fade, they are replaced by abundant clusters of small, oval, orange-red hips, extending the rose’s ornamental appeal well into autumn.
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Elegant, slender spires of pure white flowers rise above the foliage, each bloom framed by star-shaped green sepals and delicate, tissue-paper petals surrounding a distinctive, four-pronged pale green pistil. As fresh buds continue to open above and decorative seed pods develop below, the flower spikes remain attractive for weeks through late summer. Slowly spreading but never invasive, it thrives in sunny positions with moisture-retentive soil, bringing a calm, natural elegance to the border.
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Elegant and understated, Gillenia trifoliata is a clump-forming perennial that produces clouds of delicate, star-like white flowers on wiry, red-tinged stems from early to mid-summer. Its airy, open habit brings movement and lightness to borders, while the finely serrated, three-lobed foliage provides texture throughout the growing season before turning brilliant shades of fiery red in autumn.
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Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit, Lychnis coronaria ‘Alba’ is an indispensable addition to any sunny, well-drained border. Its soft, silver-grey foliage provides year-round interest and forms the perfect backdrop for airy stems topped with masses of pure white flowers from June into early autumn. Easy to grow and highly attractive to bees, regular deadheading extends the display, while allowing a few flowers to set seed, which encourages natural drifts that return year after year.
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One of the finest annuals for adding softness and movement, Ammi majus produces airy clouds of delicate white flower umbels that float above finely divided green foliage throughout summer. A florist favourite, its lace-like blooms lend a light, romantic quality to bouquets and remain fresh for up to ten days after cutting.
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A graceful, long-lived perennial with a rich medicinal history, Galega officinalis brings both beauty and biodiversity to sunny borders. Emerging in spring as a vigorous clump of upright stems clothed in attractive pinnate foliage, it flowers from midsummer onwards with elegant racemes of pea-like blooms that are highly attractive to bees and attract pollinators to your garden.
Graceful, fragrant, and wonderfully free-flowering, Rosa ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ has remained one of the world’s most admired climbing roses for well over a century. From early summer until the first frosts, it produces a succession of large, loosely double blooms in soft blush white, delicately flushed with pale pink and filled with a rich, sweet fragrance.
Delphinium ‘Moonbeam’ brings stellar height and oodles of refinement to the summer border. Towering flower spikes, reaching up to 1.5m, are densely packed with pure white florets that create a luminous focal point among mixed plantings. Place them near the back of the border to frame all of your smaller shrubs and flowers.
Vita always took into account her plants’ final size, height, and form. Layers of planting ensure continuous flowering, with groundcover and small plants at the front and taller plants at the back and middle of the borders. The borders are deep, but this means plants can be seen from different angles. Mounds of various heights are formed, sometimes in a haze of white, sometimes in solid blocks.
Foliage is important in any garden, as a restful backdrop to flowers, as a foil to flower colours, and to help unite a planting scheme. In the White Garden, foliage colour, shape, and texture are used to great effect. It is also important to remember that white comes in many shades, from pure linen-white to creamier hues, and what is planted around these different shades will either work and make the white ‘pop’ or might ‘muddy’ the desired look. For example, fresh lime-green and silver-leaved plants look incredible next to pure white.
There is so much inspiration to be found in the White Garden. To transpose ideas to your own garden, focus on a single border or pick out key plants that will work together, contrast with each other, and provide lasting interest. Mimic the use of verticals popping through mounds, and consider height by planting a climber, a tree, or a large shrub.
Eryngium giganteum available from Crocus is a White Garden essential, its spiky bracts like an Elizabethan neck ruff surrounding a central cone. It’s a great silver-grey plant to add texture and a vertical statement. Likewise, Stachys byzantina available from Crocus is also essential, this time for furry silver-grey mounds at the front of borders. You could use other silvery-white plants such as Artemisia absinthium or the annual climber Cobaea scandens ‘Alba,’ available from Chiltern Seeds, climbing through a small tree or up an obelisk. Crambe cordifolia, available from Crocus, works well with white roses, delphiniums, and love-in-a-mist.
Start as you mean to go on. Make sure spring is taken care of by planting tulips – the perfect bulb to follow on from a riot of daffodils. The pure-white, lily-flowered heads of Tulipa ‘White Triumphator’ available from Crocus add grace and elegance. Mix them up with single, late Tulipa ‘Maureen’ available from Crocus, and white-flowered honesty, Lunaria annua var. albiflora available from Crocus, for a fresh start to your White Garden. White snowdrops and crocuses, daffodils and galtonia would also add extra spring appeal. Consider adding winter flowering shrubs and trees such as Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ from Crocus or Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’ from Crocus for autumn and winter interest.
More ways to get the Sissinghurst White Garden look
Take it in a prairie direction
To create a prairie-style White Garden, introduce grasses such as Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ from Crocus with slender cream and green blades and Pennisetum villosum from Crocus with fluffy white flowers for an elegant, flowing scheme.
If you’re short on space, make a white garden in pots or with a living wall. Choose from: Libertia chilensis from Crocus; Campanula ‘Weisse Clips’ from Crocus; Luzula nivea from Crocus; Vinca minor ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ from Crocus; Brunnera macrophylla ‘Betty Bowring’ from Crocus; Tiarella ‘Spring Symphony’ from Crocus; Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’ from Crocus; and Thymus ‘Snowdrift’ from Crocus.
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