Episode Information

In the first half of the twentieth century, a quiet American man settled with his mother on a Cotswold farm and created one of the great modern English gardens. With its green architecture of garden rooms, its iconic vistas and captivating planting themes, Hidcote remains one of the most admired and inspirational gardens. Hidcote’s creator, Major Lawrence Johnston, had an artist’s eye, an architect’s sense of space, and a consuming passion for plants. He collected plants, cultivated plants, and went plant hunting; but more than that, he created a beautiful and ground-breaking garden framework in which to grow and show off his plants. We go behind the scenes to meet the gardeners who follow in Johnston’s footsteps through the seasons. As they tend his plantings and seek to restore Hidcote to the glory of its heyday, we find them falling under its maker’s mysterious spell. We celebrate the garden’s glories as we search for the elusive character of its maker.