Plant theatre

Charles Quest-Ritson joins the legion of garden enthusiasts who make the pilgrimage to the dramatic plant nurseries at Larch Cottage in Cumbria

- Charles Quest-Ritson

MELKINTHORPE is one of those places that you would only visit if you had a good reason. The hamlet is six miles south-east of Penrith and the reason people travel there from far away is the remarkable nurserycum-garden known as Larch Cottage. It is a place of dramatic beauty that has become a site of pilgrimage for gardeners from all over Britain. Never have architectural ingenuity, horticultural beauty and commercial plantsmanship been so perfectly combined.

Larch Cottage is one of a terrace of properties along the no-through road that is Melkinthorpe’s only access. It is said to have been the abode of Cumberland’s last highwayman. The cottage has a red Royal Mail box in its wall that dates from the reign of Queen Victoria. There is nothing to hint at the excitements that await the visitor who enters the door and passes into the multitude of garden rooms beyond.

Larch Cottage is the creature of Peter Stott, a garden designer who bought the property in 1984. Mr Stott is a local man— a Cumbrian—who grew up in Penrith, studied fine art, worked as a ballet dancer in London and returned to his roots to fulfil his love of art, architecture and plants. He set up a landscaping business and bought Larch Cottage as a place where he could grow interesting plants for the gardens he designed. His stock came from nurseries in the south of England and, in those early years, consisted mainly of hardy herbaceous perennials that were difficult to find closer to home.