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William Morris chose Kelmscott Manor, a Grade 1 listed Tudor farmhouse adjacent to the river Thames, as his summer home in 1871. Morris loved the house, a “dear, sweet old place,” which he described as having “grown up out of the soil.” The garden and surrounding countryside were inspirational to Morris’ work. His letters refer to crocuses, aconites, “snowdrops everywhere,” violets, primroses and tulips. Morris’ daughter, May, writes of the garden “gay with thousands of tulips”, the “white foam” of cherry and the “first purple-red rose.”
The restoration of the Manor’s garden reflects the rich botanical content of Morris’s designs – wild tulips and snakeshead fritillaries under the mulberry tree, herbaceous beds filled with hollyhocks, cottage annuals, poppies, China asters and Sweet Sultans; the Yew hedge in the front garden with the topiary dragon clipped by Morris into “Fafnir”, the mythical dragon of his Icelandic poems.
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