Heligan is a remarkable treasure trove of plants, place and stories. It is as much about achievements as aesthetics — the skills of the Georgian and Victorian gardeners to grow tender ‘exotics’ including pineapples and peaches. These skills were lost when most of the garden’s staff went off to fight in the First World War — few returned and the garden went to sleep until Tim Smit decided to restore it. The speed and determination with which he did so are recorded in his book and TV series.
LUC worked with Tim to produce a historical survey and restoration masterplan for the gardens in 1993. The plan enabled the project to obtain significant grant aid from the then Countryside Commission, now Natural England. In 1996 we researched and made detailed recommendations for the restoration of the historical plant collection and established ‘The Heligan Plant Directory’ — a database to plan the replanting programme based on a set of detailed planting plans by LUC.
We viewed Heligan as one of a suite of Cornish valley gardens that were in private ownership and competing to grow ‘the latest’, ‘the most fashionable’ and ‘the uncommon’. These were generally seafaring businessmen and traders who would show off through their gardening prowess (or certainly through that of the Head Gardener!). Heligan is a good example, containing a diversity of historic artefacts and plants.
“Having been greatly impressed by Dominic Cole [Principal Landscape Architect at LUC], we decided to appoint [LUC] as the leading consultant for [Heligan’s] development. A restoration plan draws together all the relevant archival information, survey and plans, to form a policy document on which all future restoration work can be based. It seeks to establish clear priorities and define the ethos of the restoration. Its other main benefit is that, should the principals, God forbid, fall under a bus, others have at least some idea of where to pick up the pieces”. Tim Smit
