WINTER AT SISSINGHURST Part II (December)

We're back at Sissinghurst to install the second part of an evolving botanical installation. Sited at the entrance gate and under Vita Sackville-West’s writing tower, the design will morph and shift over four months, from November through to the end of February, to reflect the atmosphere and seasonal changes in the garden beyond.
For December we wanted to conjure botanical decorations that nod to the festive season, focussing on evergreens and glittering flashes of gold and silver found in the garden in the form of drying seedheads, particularly those with a metallic quality that lend them an icy, burnished or pearly shimmer. Visitors are greeted at the entrance by an enormous wreath and large urn of evergreens. We recycled the rosehips as well as the cherry previously used in the November installation, which to our delight has just begun to flower with dainty white and pink blossoms, in tandem with its friends in the rose garden. In the stone archway under Vita’s tower, there’s a witchy wreath on the huge wooden gate and the doorway to the tower steps is outlined by a tall, narrow arch dressed with yew, Christmas box and English holly and a spiralling gold-to-silver garland of dried astrantia, asparagus, honesty, allium and sea kale. On the opposite side, a large urn of evergreens and silver melts into the last corner with a light final touch of the cherry blossom, sea kale and pearl-white honesty. Taking inspiration from Vita's library and the dusky colours of the book spines we hand-made a six-metre garland with hanging ribbons and strips of botanically dried silk. The smoky colours are interspersed with flashes of molten gold which flutter festively in the breeze and occasionally catch the light.
In early January we will evolve the design to include colourful ingredients harvested and carefully dried indoors by the garden team.
Thank you to @j_sutherland84 @saffronprentis @_gardening_adventures_ for all your
collaborative thinking, ideas, gathering, making and maintaining! It's such a pleasure to be
working with you. And thank you to our friends Heidi and Julia (the insanely creative Sussex-based mother and daughter team at Flint) for botanically-dying the silk streamers that appear along our garlands specially for the occasion @flint_lewes
#winteratsissinghurst #sissinghurstcastlegarden #gardenflowers #decembergarden #growingflowers #arrangingflowers #gardentovase #flowerstudio #flowerarrangement
Music in this video
Title: Arabesque (Debussy)
Album: Pianissimo by Ohad Ben Ari