Series 2 Ep1 - Penn’s Viburnum

Alice Hough’s diary

Penn Allen first contacted me back in the Summer of 2023. She wrote: “please excuse my making contact out of the blue. I am an avid follower of your podcast and am wondering whether you may be interested in featuring my newly published book, The Lost Garden of Loughrigg?

In one of my earliest memories, on a bright frosty day, I am helping my mother to pick flowers from the garden. ‘What is that lovely smell?’ I ask, as we pause beside a huge shrub in full flower. “That,’ replied my mother, ‘is a Viburnum fragrans.’ For most of my life, I have carried with me an understanding that this exceptional plant had some unique, personal connection with my family that I did not fully understand.

Since I first put pen to paper, I have felt with all my heart that the story is too important to be lost and that though the house and garden no longer exist as they did then and the people have long since departed, the mark they made upon the landscape should not be forgotten.”

It was exciting to hear from a listener and the story of the Viburnum fragrans sounded intriguing so Penn sent me a pdf of the book. I quickly became absorbed in the people and the plants and the story of love and loss and of friendship that stretched across time and continents. We met on zoom and though Penn lives in France and I live in London we quickly discovered that we both wanted to record this episode in the Lake District where the story takes place. So plans were made and in October, Penn and her sister and I all met in Windermere. It was a magical couple of days as we recorded in the early morning at White Craggs and then went to Holehird Gardens - there will be more from there in the Viburnum Offshoot episode in a couple of weeks time.

Key People

Alice Hough nee Redmayne - Penn’s Great Grandmother - A keen gardener, born at Brathay Hall. It is her diaries on which Penn’s account of the story are based.

Harry Hough - Alice’s husband, a surgeon and keen gardener.

3 daughters - Maud, Dorothy and Marjorie - Penn’s Grandmother

Will Purdom - the son of William Purdom - gardener at Brathay Hall. Will trains at Kew and then goes on 2 expeditions to China.

Alice and Harry Hough with their three daughters: Maud, Dorothy and Marjorie

Key Dates

1905 Alice and Harry move into White Craggs just outside Ambleside, overlooking Windermere. They had commissioned Arts and Craft architect Dan Gibson to design it.

1909 Tragedy hits the family

1912 Will returns from his first solo expedition to China and begins to help Harry to build a garden on the Rock. Harry writes in the diary: “filthy day building steps with Will in the garden.”

1913. Harry becomes a sponsor of Will’s second trip to China having introduced him to Reginald Farrer.

1914 Will Purdom and Reginald Farrer’s expedition to China

1921 Will dies in China

1929 Harry writes a book: ‘A Westmorland Garden’ towards the end of the book he writes: “and now we must take our leave although we may never to our knowledge have met each other in the flesh I feel sure, that in the spirit as garden lovers we shall have wandered together through this little paradise with mutual pleasure.”

When Penn and I talked about the conversation element of the podcast, I sensed that she was keen to better understand Will Purdom, as she put it: ‘what on earth makes you want to cross the world to seek out something that you might never find. You know, are you motivated by the plants? Are you motivated by the adventure?’

In September I had visited Tom Hart-Dyke’s World Garden at Lullingstone Castle and read his book: The Cloud Garden. Tom had been filled with a passion for plants from a very young age after his granny gave him a packet of carrot seeds. At his twenties his search for orchids in the wild, led him to risk crossing the Darien Gap in Colombia. He and a fellow traveller were captured and held hostage for 9 months and it was whilst he was a prisoner that he planned his World Garden. So I brought Penn and Tom together.

Tom Hart Dyke’s World Garden at Lullingstone Castle - photo credit Stephen Sangster

In the past, no one questioned the ethics of gathering plants from other countries.  Plant hunters were admired as adventurers, now understandably there are protocols with strict regulations about what can be collected and for what purpose - ensuring the activity is not resonant of any form of exploitation or imperialism. The introduction of thousands of plants to Britain represent a legacy of empire, that should be talked about more.  There are plenty of books about plant hunters past and also present - Sarah Wilson interviewed Dr Sandy Primrose about his book Modern Plant Hunters in her podcast Roots and All.

How To Grow

In Our Plant Stories we always learn to grow the plant in the story. I mentioned that we visited Holehird gardens, there in the Purdom bed they have a Viburnum fragrans and Alan Oatway the Garden Co-ordinator check gave us some guidance. I began by asking him if it would be easy to buy the plant:

“It's not widely available. There are two forms available. The standard form with pink flowers and a form called V.f.Candidissimum which is white, which is slightly dwarfer, but they are available if one searches around and good old Google will help with that. And then in terms of how to grow, I think there are two things that I'd suggest to start with. One is... get your money's worth out of the nurseryman that supplies it to you and ask their advice. And second is to consider where it grew naturally. And northern China, which is the source of Viburnum fragrans in this case, is well known for its cool winters and also for its moist summers. Summer days when the sun is out will be quite warm, so the plant can survive the warmth, but invariably will have moisture at its roots for most of the time. So in the absence of any other knowledge, those are the two things I'd start with.

So when does it flower?

I think further south it would flower much earlier than it does here, but we're looking at January, February as the time that we would have the lovely perfumed flowers as something to look at in the winter garden.

Could you put it in a pot?

I personally wouldn't. I think I've admitted before I'm a particular sort of gardener and pots need a lot of maintenance in terms of watering and having said this grows in an area in China where the moisture is pretty much assured I would hesitate to pot bound it.

I want to thank Penn for sharing this story with the podcast and for the joyful couple of days as we visited houses, gardens, churches and churchyards in Windermere, tracing the lives of her family. You can buy her book - The Lost Garden of Loughrigg here. You can also follow her on Instagram - @penn.allen and on Twitter/X @pennAllenwrites

Thanks also to her sister Pink for her company and being the official photographer on the trip! Thanks to Alan Oatway and Vicky Aspin for their warm welcome at Holehird and to the Ambleside Oral Archive for the wonderful archive clip of Penn’s grandmother - Marjorie. Thanks too to Tom Hart Dyke.

If you have a plant story that you would like to share, you can email me: sally@ourplantstories.com

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