I’ve like to think of myself as someone who never lets the opportunity to visit a garden pass by. I can reel off the names of the gardens I’ve visited, and my computer is clogged with pictures of gardens and plants that I’ve seen.

It’s never occurred to me that that are gardens that I’ve not only missed but have barely acknowledged the existence of. These are not secret private gardens hidden away from the world and only opened to the select few. Neither are they gardens only open to the public for limited hours at strange times.

In fact far from it.

For Me?

I am a gardening expert. I know about fancy plants and gardens, so what possible joy could I get from visiting a municipal garden?

I’ve spent so much of my life trying to be right about things, but I’ve now come to understand how good it can be to be proven wrong.  With this in mind I was invited to visit a public garden in Falmouth, a seaside town at the far south west corner of the UK.

A visit that has challenged my ideas about public gardens, what they are and what they can be.

Falmouth Town

Falmouth is a good place to base yourself if you want to visit the great gardens of Cornwall. Go east for up to an hour and you will reach the Camellia collection at Trewithen, the magnolias and other woody plants at Caerhays Castle, and the celebrated Lost Gardens Of Heligan.

Venture west and you’re an hour and 15 minutes from The Minack Theatre, about 45 minutes to St Michael’s Mount (it’s a garden on an island with a castle in the middle!), about 20 minutes from Trebah and Glendurgan, and about 10 minutes from Penjerrick.

The Fox Legacy

The Fox family has played a significant part in the history of Falmouth and the surrounding area.

They were a big business family (and remain in the area to this day), with interests in shipping and fishing, along with mining and metal refining. Cornwall has a rich mining history and is surrounded by sea; the Fox family business empire was well placed and it made them very wealthy.

The 19^th century saw a lot of wealthy landowners take a great interest in the new plant introductions coming from the Far East and the southern hemisphere, and the climate of West Cornwall proved perfect for such exotics. Different members of the family created gardens at Trebah, Glendurgan, Penjerrick and Rosehill – the Fox four.

All are open to the public for at least part of the year, but it is Fox Rosehill Gardens that I would like to draw your attention to.

Fox Rosehill Gardens

Just after the Second World War, the Fox family gave their garden at Rosehill to the people of Falmouth.

The town has changed over the years, and there’s now a university campus on what would have been a lot of the original property. The garden lives on, and what a charming garden it is too.

There’s still much of the original Fox family influence seen in the mature planting. Tree ferns, a must-have for any self-respecting Cornish garden, grow as happily here as they do in the larger and more famous gardens. There are giant eucalypts from Australia and big podocarps from New Zealand mixed with native species that tower over more recently planted trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants below.

Anyone familiar with the Cornish gardens of the area will feel right at home at Fox Rosehill Gardens. From the gravel garden planted with succulents and some exotics that I was surprised to see growing outside even here, to the camellias and a couple of rather impressive examples of young Knightia excelsa; this is a grand Cornish garden but on a smaller scale.

For Everyone

I find the fact that this garden is here for everyone rather inspiring.

I confess that when I think of municipal gardens the images that come to mind are not pretty; graffiti and dustbins overflowing with litter, neglected structures acting as depressing reminders that there was a time when public spaces were loved.

There’s none of that at Fox Rosehill Gardens. In fact beyond the tarmac (asphalt) paths instead of the customary fine gravel I would struggle to have found any sign that I wasn’t in a garden run by a charity, trust or business. Plants were happy and well-tended, although I felt that the ‘trimming’ of some camellias on one boundary was a bit of a letdown.

Normally I have to pay good money to visit gardens like this, and here it was being made available to everyone in the community.

Key Assets

The legacy of the Fox family has given the place a remarkable foundation to work from, but it would be so easy to mess things up.

The greatest asset of a garden like this isn’t the plants, it’s the gardeners. This is a garden that has been cared for over decades. A great number of gardeners have played their part in caring for this remarkable space, and the current gardeners continue this legacy.

Municipal gardens were once a badge of honour for urban areas around the UK. Not only were they community spaces for those who didn’t have outdoor spaces of their own, they were an opportunity for local authorities to promote their communities and, dare I say, engage is friendly competition. In their heyday public parks were seen as examples of horticultural excellence.

As socio-economic pressures mounted in the latter parts of the 20^th century these parks and gardens just became liabilities. Flowerbeds were grassed over and structures were demolished, all in the name of economy. Places that were destinations in their own right became places for antisocial behaviour to thrive.

Urban deprivation was probably always going to happen, but neglected public spaces have become symbolic of the decline of communities. Horticulture is an easy target for those seeking to balance public accounts; there always seems to be funding for new projects, but high standard ongoing maintenance is never appreciated.

And this is what makes Fox Rosehill Gardens remarkable. Despite the never-ending cutbacks made to urban horticulture across the country, Fox Rosehill Gardens stands as a testament to what a public garden could be like.

More Please

Falmouth has its problems, as does any town. There is antisocial behaviour, drug users and alcoholics, and those who spray graffiti.

Yet there’s no sign of serious problems at Fox Rosehill. A significant part of this will be that this garden is used and visited; there is a route through the garden to the university campus and areas on one side, through to a busy street on the other. Students from the university are free to use the garden, as is anyone else. During my visit there were two young women sitting on the grass at the bottom of a tree just talking. Not doing anything else, just talking to each other and enjoy their environment. Exactly what these places are for.

There’s an easy argument to make that public spaces aren’t worth investment because as soon as you plant something it will get vandalised or even stolen. Thus investment in making a place beautiful seems a bit pointless, and then vandals move in to fulfil the prophecy.

But in towns like Falmouth that rely on visitors to contribute to the local economy public spaces have the potential to become attractions in their own right. Britain is a great place to visit gardens, but visiting gardens can get very expensive after a while. Our horticultural heritage ends up hidden behind paywalls so only the more affluent can enjoy it.

Fox Rosehill Gardens are there for everyone. Not just locals and not just visitors, and not for people who are either affluent or not. The gardeners do a fantastic job of keeping the place not just acceptable but actually looking good. Thought goes in to the management and care of the place. There’s no sign of the stereotypical unskilled and disinterest horticulture associated with municipal horticulture here.

Public gardens will never be truly safe, especially away from major cities. Horticulture is an easy target for funding cutbacks, and there is a constant demand for more and more from ever dwindling resources.

But wouldn’t it be great if every town could have a charming garden like Fox Rosehill?

The investment in plants would not be the challenge for most places. These gardens need skilled gardeners to take care of them, gardeners like those who care for Fox Rosehill Gardens. That’s the hard sell to councils and local authorities; if you want your public spaces to thrive you need good skilled people, and you need to see horticulture as adding value to a community and not just a line on a balance sheet. 

However the wider gardening community can help; when we find a good public garden we need to support it. Maybe donate to fundraisers, or share space plants so that others can enjoy them. Or even just visit and tell others about the garden. It all helps.