A wild and romantic garden in Mallorca where English country charm meets Mediterranean planting
Can you define the key elements of a classic English country garden? It will include lawns and topiary. There may be winding paths and statuary, but the planting will most definitely be abundantly mixed and incorporate lots and lots of roses.
This was precisely the vision Giovanni Torielli had in mind when he engaged Filippo Dimatteo and Maurizio Usai to advise on his country garden. It mattered not a jot that the three men were Italian and the garden in question was in a wildly beautiful valley in the north east of Mallorca. Faced with a blank expanse of wastefully irrigated lawns, inappropriate palm trees and the dramatic backdrop of the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range, the trio set out to divide the space into themed areas filled with flowers in combinations to provide Anglophile interest in each season.
‘We are, all three, passionate about plants,’ says Filippo. ‘We started with an idea about the feeling we wanted to create – that essence of an English country garden – and then began to consider the types of plant that could come together in that way. Of course, the summers here are hot, dry and harsh, but it’s not like this all year round. This is actually the wettest part of the island and the surrounding mountains channel all that water down into this valley,’ he adds. ‘As a result, the soil here is naturally deep and rich, which opened up the range of planting possibilities. The property has its own well, so we can irrigate responsibly, although we do save as much water as possible.’
In true cottage-garden style, Giovanni’s priority was to create a kitchen garden so, in 2017, that is where work began. The ideal location was found at the bottom of the garden, in an area so overgrown that no one quite knew where the boundary lay. The encroaching scrub was cleared and now this former wasteland is filled with a satisfyingly ordered and highly productive arrangement of rectangular beds and gravel paths. It is separated from the main garden by a beautiful stone wall, which looks as though it has been there forever but is actually just a few years old.
‘Vernacular landscaping is important to me,’ Filippo says. ‘It is an authentic way of working that honours local craftsmanship and helps a garden settle into its location even when, as here, you have the design traditions of another country in your mind.’ With the potager underway, the men then turned their attention to the enormous lawn that lay between it and the house. ‘I’m not against Mediterranean lawns,’ says Filippo. ‘They are useful in some circumstances – for entertaining, or to extend a terrace or pool area – but you don’t want huge expanses. Here, we broke it up to create hubs within a series of interlinking garden rooms.’
These are not strictly delineated rooms in the Arts and Crafts sense, but, in the gentle warmth of late winter, the effect does evoke thoughts of an English contemporary country garden. As well as those well-kept lawns, there are gravel paths, an orchard (admittedly one in which orange and lemon trees outnumber apples) and a shady walk lined with ferns, mahonia and Hydrangea quercifolia. Above all, there is a wonderful abundance of ornamental planting.
Airy clouds of Stipa gigantea and other decorative grasses glow in the strong sunlight, anchored by clipped domes of Elaeagnus x ebbingei, myrtle, Pistacia lentiscus and silvery Teucrium fruticans. These are interspersed with swathes of Centranthus ruber, Erigeron karvinskianus and Oenothera lindheimeri, lavender, Verbena bonariensis, salvias and the wonderful collection of roses that Giovanni dreamed of.
‘English people tend to think they invented the rose garden, but many of the wild species came originally from China and the Middle East,’ observes Filippo. ‘Since then, breeding work has produced groups like the tea roses, China roses and noisettes, which withstand Mallorca’s high temperatures and dry conditions remarkably well.’
The most concentrated display of roses encircles one of the three remaining lawns and, at this time of year, the sight and the scent of it are intoxicating. Were it not for the vertiginously rocky backdrop, it could almost be set in the heart of the Home Counties. Great mounds of Rosa ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’, R. ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’ and R. x odorata ‘Mutabilis’ flower constantly from autumn until late spring in the Mediterranean climate, after which the roses take a well-earned siesta to escape the summer heat.
In all, there are over 30 different roses in this garden, including coppery pink Rosa ‘Général Schablikine’, which is less well known in the UK, but perhaps deserves to be more widely grown there, given its ability to flower over the same improbable period – at least in sheltered southern locations.
In the months when temperatures soar to uncomfortable heights, the focus shifts to another plant family familiar to English gardeners. Filippo has introduced more than 20 species of salvia, most of which are grouped close to the house and swimming pool, where Giovanni and his family can enjoy them without venturing too far into the blazing sunshine. Among them are familiar favourites, including Salvia guaranitica ‘Blue Enigma’ and S. ‘Amistad’, both of which flower prolifically in the high summer heat.
But it does also get cold here and, when temperatures slump towards zero in January and February, attention shifts to the gravel garden, where the family likes to gather around the fire pit. Here, lime green Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii and E. myrsinites grow happily alongside various cistus, phlomis and Stachys byzantina in just the way that they do in many an English garden.
At a time when the world often seems to be fracturing along nationalistic lines, it is wonderful to spend time in a garden that so elegantly straddles geographical boundaries. ‘Without interpreting the client’s aspirations, a design becomes impersonal, but without engaging with the genius loci, it risks feeling disconnected from its environment,’ says Filippo. ‘Here, where we all were led by a passion for plants, we have created a garden that is absolutely its own thing, but also perfectly at home in Mallorca'.
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