NEW ROMANTICS

Garden designer Jo Thompson has made her name creating charming, dreamy gardens to fall in love with. She shares her recipe for planting romance with us

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When we think about quintessentially English gardens, it’s often the romance of secret hideaways, tumbling roses and an abundance of flowers that captures our imagination. In her latest book, The New Romantic Garden (£40, Rizzoli), Jo Thompson explores how she taps into this particular vision to create her empyrean spaces.

The title may be a cute nod to the 1980s, but Jo’s style has always stood apart from the high-end makeover culture that dominated the turn of the century gardening scene. Her approach to gardening is heavily planting rather than hard landscaping. When she set about curating the book, the gardens led the way and she chose 30 of her designs, including her own cottage-sized garden. The varied spaces show how to achieve a romantic look wherever you live.

For Jo, the aim is to weave magic and fun into her gardens, while conforming to her clients’ needs and personal style. ‘She doesn’t believe in heavy intervention, or a serious stamp of design. The Jo Thompson methodology is more about gentle coaxing, working with the landscape and the clients, through a series of personal chats and many cups of tea, to find the right solution.

Her choice of materials is always a reflection of the style of the house and the taste of the garden owners. ‘It’s just as important to understand how clients live indoors and what design details sit inside the house,’ Jo explains. So, contemporary materials used in the interior of the house might be echoed in the border.