Gardener: Marcella Hawley
Great Dixter's Influence on North American Gardeners
“No matter what color you’re introducing, Dixter shows that it is simple fun to PLAY, and to be confident in your playing, and if you don’t like the results, for gosh sakes, just take it out and move on…”
Marcella Hawley on Great Dixter
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our first interview of North American gardeners, each of whom have been deeply influenced by the work of the famed British garden, Great Dixter. In the coming weeks I will be sharing the stories of students, designers, horticultural professionals and home gardeners as we chat about the practices and qualities of Dixter that have changed them.
Read a bit about the history and the generosity of Great Dixter in the first post of this series:
Gardener of possibility
Today we have a wonderful illustrator-turned-gardener, Marcella Hawley. Marcy lives near St Louis with her family creating the colorful “Slope of Possibility” in the steep front slope at the front of her home. I’m glad to invite Marcy here to tell us about what Dixter means to her.
Julie: How did you find Great Dixter?
Marcy: I was in the UK with my friend Sharyn Sowell after cruising in the Norwegian fjords (Sharyn taught a watercolor class on board and I was her assistant!). We tacked a few days on to our trip, and thought, hey, let’s explore England a little bit. I’d been in touch with a British gardening friend I made on Instagram, Edward Flint. We had rough plans to visit Sissinghurst, and Ed generously offered a tour of the private garden estate that he has artfully stewarded for 20+ years. On the morning of our tour, Ed and his wife Nicky decided we needed to see Great Dixter first, so we beelined over before the crowds flocked in. After that day, our lives were changed forever. That is not hyperbole!
Julie: Do you have a favorite part of the garden or planting at Great Dixter?
Marcy: The whole place had me in its thrall. Elements of the long border, the sunken garden, the peacock garden, the meadow… with every pivot of the heel, I was met with delight. And that is the key word: Delight. This garden elicits - and sustains - sheer delight! I love that the tiniest details of the plantings seem at once extremely fussed over AND totally wild and free. Charmingly, brilliantly, insightfully controlled chaos, everywhere. It is euphoric, it is life-affirming. It sends my imagination into overdrive.
I first visited the garden in early June, punctuated by roses and poppies, and I was able to return this past September to find a completely different garden, billowing over with asters and dahlias. My favorite parts of the garden are the ones with abundance, where I can see how plants play together. I enjoy the mingling of seed heads with flowers, vines winding through shrubs, flowers peeking out from every spare space. I suppose the long border is the most fantastic place for this showy show, but honestly, every inch of the property gives me goosebumps.
Julie: How has Great Dixter inspired you?
Marcy: Multiple aspects at Dixter (as well as Ed’s client’s private garden nearby, which he began designing after working at Dixter) changed everything I knew about gardening, while affirming what speaks to my soul in other areas of my life: An exuberant mixing of colors, textures, design concepts, and plant types with a devil-may-care attitude! The sense of conscientious experimentation is palpable. Miniature conifers potted up alongside annuals! Tropical leaves popping through the roses! When I came home to the US from Dixter, I planted cabbages and purple kale directly into my peony borders and I’ve never looked back.
I love that they “trial” various plants in pots before placing them into the beds, to observe and learn about the habit, bloom time, color, height, etc, so they can decide whether something is worthy of a greater audience. This practice taught me that plants in a design can be thought through tactically and precisely. And that we are always learning, observing, making notes, tweaking.
I admire the generous, creative, collaborative spirit, how Fergus et al want to share what they’ve learned, and how they refer to the “art and craft” of gardening (this is the name of a class that Ed teaches at Dixter). It is surely all of those things and more! They share so much goodness, that place, those wonderful people. The fact that they welcome interns and hold classes - both on Zoom and in person - teaching and applying the myriad dimensions of Christo’s gardening ethos, is the ultimate gift to gardeners. We are all the better for the work they are doing, carrying on Christopher Lloyd’s dreamy, humorous, vivacious approach to gardening and life itself.
For sure, the idea of succession planting was very new to me, and now I can’t imagine gardening any other way (how boring!). I am inspired to cram as many unique and fanciful plants into my schemes as I possibly can, as many as are sustainable, of course. I treat my garden like a passionate plant-lover/mad scientist’s laboratory and art studio. Dixter emboldened my spark and set it afire.
Julie: What three words best describe Great Dixter to you?
Marcy: I believe you’re looking for adjectives, but I will put it more directly. Great Dixter is: “The Good Life”.
Julie: How have you applied what you have learned at/from Dixter to your gardening (or designing) in North America?
Marcy: Trialing is a great way to get to know a plant, and I learned it directly from Dixter - it had never occurred to me before! I will order quantities of 10-12 different tulips, plant them in an area away from everything else, then take notes on what I like and dislike, and then decide on whether or not to bring more of them into my limited garden space. I’ve also experimented with hostas this way, starting them in pots before moving them to the garden.
I let plants I love go to seed and spread their babies all around - bronze fennel, sweet rocket, celandine poppy - spread your wings and fly, fall in between the rocks and pop up through the sidewalk. Every year looks different, plants figure out where they would prefer to live, and things feel loose. Letting things bloom where they want to has been liberating and really aligns with my general vibe, which is not very disciplined (heh). I enjoy the surprises that come up throughout the year from letting things go to seed.
I know Christopher was into hot clashy colors… pairing peach with red, say, and that aspect has not grown on me—yet. But I have definitely adopted the idea of echoing a zesty color through a sight line… chartreuse up front in Alchemilla mollis, then perhaps echoed by Spirea a bit further back, and again in a spiky grass. And I must confess, I’d not been a red person, ever. But after trialing ‘Kingsblood’ red tulips, they are now a must-plant for me — they add the jolt of juice that’s needed to rattle the daffodils, ferns, and hostas. No matter what color you’re introducing, Dixter shows that it is simple fun to PLAY, and to be confident in your playing, and if you don’t like the results, for gosh sakes, just take it out and move on, try something else. Again, parables for living.
Most notably, I have become a raging succession planter. There is no turning back now. Once you realize you can design using this method, it allows a self-indulgent plant collector like myself limitless possibilities of combinations throughout the year. It broadens the amount of plant shopping opportunities exponentially! I can’t imagine gardening any other way.
I am so grateful to Ed Flint for expanding my horizons, and if I may be frank, the garden he has created is even better than Dixter. Ed has a sensitivity to plants and poetry, to light and dark, to color and form, that rivals the finest gardeners in the UK if not the world. We in the US can learn a lot from Christopher Lloyd’s books and his legacy at Dixter, from Fergus and the team, and from Ed Flint. What a time to be alive!
Julie: Where can we find out more about your work in North America?
Marcy: I welcome you to follow the evolution of my garden (and essentially my whole world) on Instagram at Marcella Hawley. Visit www.marcellahawley.com for my newsletter and upcoming book, line of botanical stamps, and various escapades in living a joyful life. Thank you, Julie, for letting me spill my heart out about Dixter!! I think you are SO WONDERFUL for doing all that you do!
Thank you, Marcy!
Marcella Hawley is an artist, enthusiasm enthusiast, and firm believer in plants as a path to healing. For three decades, she’s cultivated beauty by designing plant catalogs, branching out with Martha Stewart Living and illustrating botanical wonders for clients worldwide. A former art director for the vibrant décor magazine Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion, Marcella founded a boutique graphic design business and launched Power Poppy, an online community of flower-fanatic crafters. She is currently working on a book about the transformation of her boring front yard into “The Slope of Possibility,” an ever-blooming tribute to her late mother, and a project that provided a new way of life to take root. Marcella lives and gardens in Webster Groves, Missouri. Visit www.marcellahawley.com, www.powerpoppy.com, and Marcella Hawley on Instagram.
What a great piece!! Bit queasy reading the last paragraph or two…but lovely to be do highly thought of!