In the latter stages of a 20 year career as an editorial illustrator I found myself increasingly longing to be outside working in the garden. Alongside the illustration I retrained in horticulture before working in gardens of all types from grand private estates to a community vegetable garden in the remote Scottish highlands. When settled in the Scottish Borders I began to pursue a long held dream to live and cultivate a walled garden.  After a systematic search involving google earth and lots of visits to abandoned walled gardens I finally found my lost garden, completely overgrown, boarded up but still enchanting, 15 minutes from where I was living. 

Bonjedward walled garden – formerly part of the Bonjedward House estate – just outside of Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, is now home to the Applehouse cutting garden. The 3.5 m high Georgian walls provide a protection against rabbits and the worst weather for the growing of beautiful flowers for cutting throughout the seasons. From late winter hellebores and leucojum (think giant snowdrops) to spring bulbs, then tulips, peonies, roses and dahlias. Alongside these stalwarts are sweetpeas, cornflowers larkspur and honeywort – just a fraction of the varieties I raise without chemicals from seed – all chosen for their glorious colours, scent and form and importantly their performance as a cut flower.

Little pieces of history – peonies, alstromerias, hardy geraniums, alchemellis, roses, daffodils, solomons seal and clematis-  planted by gardeners decades ago and salvaged from the sea of nettles, brambles and rosebay willow herb, are flourishing again and carry the garden from its purposeful past into the next chapter of beauty and productiveness.

Applehouse Flowers supplies gift bouquets, arrangements, wedding and funeral flowers or can offer buckets of flowers for you to arrange yourself. We welcome enquiries from local florists. We are also delighted to be selling our flowers through Mainstreet Trading in St Boswells with deliveries every Friday from Mothers Day onwards.

Flowers are grown here at the Walled Garden and surrounding site and also sourced from local or British growers when needed, such as early in the year or when additional blooms are needed for larger occasions.