From April to October, on the first Tuesday of each month you can visit the Orchard Plant Library and Barn Garden from 10.00am–1.00pm. All money raised from ticket sales will go directly to the Serge Hill Project which is a not for profit CIC (Community Interest Company).

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (October 2023)

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (April 2024)

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (May 2024)

We are delighted to announce our first workshops in the Plant Library and we would love to see you there. Serge Hill Project CIC is partnering with 

 to offer three study days at Serge Hill, led by Tom Stuart-Smith, Sue Stuart-Smith, Noel Kingsbury, Annie Guilfoyle, and Millie Souter, from early to late summer.

8.May - Workshop 1 - Bulbs and early summer perennials with Sue Stuart Smith, Millie Souter, and Annie Guilfoyle

Garden Masterclass at The Plant Library (1 of 3)

The day will start with a talk by Vicki Hird author of 'Rebugging The Planet'. 


Vicki will support students to catch insects in pooters for identification. She will discuss the significance of the insects and importance in the ecology of the garden.


This will be followed by a drawing workshop with artist Henny Beaumont. Henny will instruct the students how to look at, understand and capture the form of the insects in our pooters. Additionally or alternatively, students could draw or take rubbings from leaves, bark or stones from the surrounding gardens with support and agreement. The aim will be to create designs to use for our plates.

We will the release insects back into the garden.

In the afternoon, Brigit Connolly and Henny Beaumont will build on the work done in the morning to help the students create ceramic ‘Pallissy Plates’ working either directly with clay or air dried clay. Students who prefer to working in 2D will be supported to develop their drawings on paper. The drawings created by students will be formatted and printed onto ceramic plates and cups.

Insect Week: Sunnyside Rural Trust Workshop

James Alexander-Sinclair digs beneath the mulch with Mark Fane and Peter Clay of Crocus together with Tom Stuart-Smith to find out about their long collaboration at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This began with a garden for Chanel in 1998 and ends – for the time being- with their garden for the National Gardens Scheme and Project Giving Back at Chelsea 2024. Honor Reekie who worked with Tom on the 2024 garden will also share a few choice insights into the making of the garden this year.

Chelsea Talk

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (June 2024)

Bring the garden inside through a series of exploratory floral masterclasses at The Apple House, within the Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity, and Health. Hazel Gardiner, passionate floral artist, gardener, and broadcaster will be teaching a day of workshops celebrating cut flowers and the mindful, healing, practice of floral design. Your day starts with a tour of the private cutting garden at Tom Stuart-Smith's Plant Library where Hazel will be joined by its Head Gardener, Millie Souter.

This rare opportunity to explore the field for fascinating insight into curating and growing a wide selection of floral varieties. You will also be able to select and pick a selection of flowers. Returning to the beautiful Apple House, your harvested flowers will be used in the first workshop of the day. Hazel will teach how to create a striking hand-tied bouquet in her signature naturalistic style with additional flowers harvested from the cutting garden and surrounding Serge Hill site. Once completed, your bouquet will be lovingly wrapped for you to take home and enjoy.

After a nourishing lunch, Hazel will demonstrate how to create an impactful and imaginative vessel arrangement using sustainable foam-free techniques showcasing the unique and varied varieties grown in the Plant Library. You’ll gain insight into Hazel’s design techniques using the principles of colour, texture, and structure. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions, and Hazel will share her insider care tips and knowledge throughout the session. Afterward, you’re invited to take a relaxing self-guided tour of the garden to further explore and learn about the initiative.

This one-day masterclass is a true celebration of seasonality and a unique opportunity to experience and learn about the Serge Hill Project, meet the team, and nurture your creativity in its stunning surroundings. Workshops are suitable for all skill levels; all materials are provided. Please note, the cutting garden tour is weather-dependent; please wear suitable footwear for potential inclement weather.

All money raised from ticket sales will go directly to the Serge Hill Project which is a not for profit CIC (Community Interest Company).

Floral Masterclass with Hazel Gardiner

Tania and Jamie's talk will explore the flora of the Peloponnese where Jamie leads springtime tours from a property overlooking the Messenian gulf and the Taygetos mountain. This is also where Tania has created a garden of predominantly Mediterranean plants. Their talk will look at the wild wider landscape and its influence on planting choices for the garden.

Tania & Jamie Compton: Gardening & Plant Hunting in Greece

Since my early teens, I have made six gardens for myself and my family.The first was foisted onto my long-suffering parents who raised the white flag and let me get on with it. Now for the first time since that garden I have the luxury of time and the largest space thus far to play with. The new garden is part done; the field, with its wildflower meadows, and many closely planted “orchard like” trees (I prefer “coppice wood pasture”) is now in place if of course rather raw. As I write the garden around the house has most of its new bones in place, the contractors are soon to depart, but with no planting other than the trees and shrubs that have lived there for at least 70 years.

Despite no longer being in gainful employment, I cannot step out of the shoes of educator-flier of kites, that I have occupied for the past 40 years. As ever I wanted to make something that was in some way new or at least experimental that might be of interest to others. To boost biodiversity, to respond positively and creatively to climate change, plant lots of different trees (lignin therapy), in the right places; and beneath these, restore an area of meadowland to what it might once have been or better. Perhaps a stepping stone to encourage others to follow suit? I also wanted to have some fun, to choreograph great seasonal drama on the stage that is the garden, my home version of the “wow factor” that has been the hallmark of my life’s work. To do this you need numbers for each moment in time. A single Dodecatheon or Begonia grandis is a fine thing but when you lay 500 of each across a garden landscape a different world is brought into being. It's rather early days but I do hope some of my plans may be of interest to you.

James Hitchmough's New Garden

Extra date released, with the option to purchase Student Tickets. You can visit the Orchard Plant Library and Barn Garden from 10.00am–1.00pm. All money raised from ticket sales will go directly to the Serge Hill Project which is a not for profit CIC (Community Interest Company).

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (18 June 2024)

‘I want people to go ‘wow’ at the romantic abundance as soon as they arrive.’ Kate Stuart-Smith

The garden at Serge Hill has been in the Stuart-Smith family for nearly a hundred years. When Kate Stuart-Smith took it over in the 1990’s she was faced with a series of challenges. How to make a place your own when it is a much-loved family garden - albeit with the sensibility of an older generation? How to edit out plants you have always disliked and yet be sure to hang on to plants which you may regret losing? Do you dare to remove a mature tree or a carefully nurtured hedge? What will happen if you simply stop the meticulous spraying that has kept the paths crisp and clear for generations?

Sister of landscape designer Tom whose renowned Barn Garden is across the way, fellow designer Kate Stuart-Smith will be discussing how she took on the family plot thoughtfully - but with a sense of adventure - and created a garden whose surging, fairy tale profusion does indeed make the visitor gasp.

In this special event, guests will have the opportunity to visit Kate's Garden at Serge Hill House as well as the Orchard Plant Library and Barn Garden, from 5 to 6 pm.

Kate Stuart-Smith & Non Morris: On the Garden at Serge Hill House

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (July 2024)

According to Peter, with inspiration from the wild it´s possible to create low maintenance plantings with high diversity, in almost any environment. Plantings that don´t need irrigation but have high ornamental values with continuous flowering through the seasons and beautiful winter values. Plantings that are important for biodiversity and can stand or even benefit from a more extreme future climate.

In his talk, Peter will show some examples and talk about the thoughts behind some of his public plantings, as well as from Klinta Trädgård; his private garden and nursery.

What factors affect a planting and how is it possible to to turn the most problematic conditions to an excellent starting point? How to read an area, take advantage of the different factors and create possibilities for plants to thrive. How to make sustainable plantings with high plant diversity. Peter believes that hot dry places in cities can be transformed to important environments for biodiversity. But in urban areas where many people live, the function and the aesthetic values are as or even more important. It´s also possible to combine all of this with stormwater management and other challenges. Maintenance is always the key factor to success. A planting should solve problems, not create them.

SOLD OUT: Peter Korn: Growing in Sand

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (16 July 2024)

 to offer three study days at Serge Hill, led by Tom Stuart-Smith, Sue Stuart-Smith, Noel Kingsbury, and Millie Souter, from early to late summer.

24.July - Workshop 2 – Summer perennials

The focus for this second workshop is on summer perennials such as Amsonia, Salvia, Phlomis, Umbelifers and Santolina. Tom Stuart-Smith and Noel Kingsbury will be on hand, along with Millie Souter. Students can choose a genus to study and observe and compare species along with reviewing and observing qualities for design purposes. The workshop continues with observational drawings which can be used in design proposals and 3D visuals. Analysing plant choices, communicating using drawings, studying plant combinations and making suggestions, through critique and rationale.

There will be a tour of Tom and Sue’s garden with Derek Hunter, the focus on this day will be the west garden.

Garden Masterclass at the Plant Library (2 of 3)

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (Aug 2024)

'For me garden design is not just about plants, it is about emotion, atmosphere, a sense of contemplation’ – Piet Oudolf

A rare opportunity to hear the pioneering Dutch plantsman, nurseryman and author, at the forefront of the New Perennial movement Piet Oudolf reflecting on the gardens and plants that have defined his career so far.

An Evening with Piet Oudolf

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (Sept 2024)

‘Biodiversity isn’t about just a few select species, but an integrated world with one element impacting on the other’ – Fergus Garrett

Spend the evening in The Apple House with Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener of one of the UK’s most loved gardens, Great Dixter, as he shares insights about the practices, plants and people that have contributed to make Great Dixter such an extraordinarily biodiverse garden; one that is much richer in biodiversity than the countryside surrounding it.

Fergus Garrett on Biodiversity at Great Dixter

25 September - Workshop 3 – Late summer perennials and grasses.

In the morning Tom Stuart-Smith will be sharing some of the best-performing late summer flowering perennials, exploring two selections of plants: those grown in sand and those grown in green waste.


Then after lunch Head Gardener Millie Souter will lead the workshop which includes Euphorbia, Aster, Kalimeris, Grasses and Actaea. Students can choose a genus to study and observe and compare species along with reviewing and observing qualities for design purposes. The workshop continues with observational drawings which can be used in design proposals and 3D visuals. Analysing plant choices, communicating using drawings, studying plant combinations and making suggestions, through critique and rationale.

There will be a tour of Tom and Sue’s garden with Derek Hunter, the focus on this day will be the prairie and the Cornus kousa grove.

Garden Masterclass at The Plant Library (3 of 3)

Plant Library and Barn Garden Visit (Oct 2024)

Hosted by Tom Stuart-Smith Studio, Working with Earth: Architecture and Landscape is a two day symposium of forward-thinking discussions, shared knowledge, practical demonstrations and garden tours. It brings together a community of some of the most innovative, creative and acclaimed minds in sustainable Architecture and Landscape Architecture working in the UK today.

Speakers and demonstrators include Material Cultures (George Massoud and Paloma Gormley), Feilden Fowles (Edmund Fowles), Muirne Kate Dineen, Iza Thomson and Bee Rowan, Local Works (Loretta Bosence and Ben Bosence), Sarah Price, Cleve West, Tom Massey, Tom Stuart-Smith, Ben Stuart-Smith and Millie Souter.

Working with Earth: Architecture and Landscape, a two day symposium

The Safe Green Space: Gardens and Health is a one-day symposium on the power of gardens to heal hosted by the Serge Hill Project and 

Speakers include: De Sue Stuart-Smith, Tom Stuart-Smith, Arit Anderson, Dr Richard Claxton, Dr Olivia Chapple, Keely Siddiqui Charlick, Ashley Edwards, Joe Darrell, Ruth Madder, Millie Souter.

‘Everything that happens in a garden takes place in slow time; the flowers, shrubs and trees simply get on with growing quietly at their own pace and so it is with people’ - Dr Sue Stuart-Smith

The Safe Green Space: Gardens and Health is a one-day symposium hosted by the Serge Hill Project and Gardening4Health, at the new Apple House venue, set in the heart of a unique Plant Library of 1500 herbaceous perennials.

Bringing together some of the leading lights within horticultural therapy and garden design, speakers will explore the many ways that nature-based interventions can be beneficial to health and well-being.

The Safe Green Space: Gardens and Health, a one day symposium

“There’s not a day in the year that something can’t be propagated.” – Anya Lautenbach

Spend the evening in The Apple House with bestselling author Zia Allaway and Instagram’s propagation queen Anya Lautenbach, to celebrate the launch of Anya’s brilliant new book The Money-Saving Garden Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Great Garden that Costs Less.

With a new gardening year ahead, Anya will be in conversation with gardening writer, author, editor and long-standing Plant Library volunteer, Zia Allaway, about her best advice on what to do in the garden each month, while keeping budget in mind, to get the most out of your plot all year round. During the talk Anya will offer practical advice on everything from when to plant seedlings to the best time to propagate different plants, as well as demonstrating some easy propagation techniques. Afterwards, Anya will be signing copies of her new book, which will be for sale at the event by local independent bookseller Books On The Hill. The ideal gift for your Christmas list.

Anya Lautenbach & Zia Allaway: From Propagation to Planting - The Money Saving Garden Year with Instagram’s Anya The Garden Fairy

With a career that spans 30 years, winner of a Gold Medal and Best Portfolio in the 2024 RHS Botanical Art and Photography show, internationally renowned photographer Andrea Jones will be hosting this garden and plant photography workshop which explores the rich late autumn planting in the gardens at and around the Serge Hill Project, celebrating the soft tones and textures within.

Across the gardens of the Plant Library, Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith’s Barn Garden and Kate Stuart-Smith’s Serge Hill there will be a wide selection of interesting plants to photograph; individually and in combination.

Photographing Gardens & Plants Throughout the Year: Capturing Autumn's Subtle Colours, Tones and Textures with Andrea Jones

Come join us for a fun, relaxing festive celebration creating wreaths or garlands in our stunning new orchard venue, The Apple House.

This workshop will guide you step by step through how to make a sustainable festive garland or wreath using just wire and seasonal fresh foliage from the grounds of Serge Hill decorated with dried seed heads from the Plant Library, ribbons, and home dried fruit. At the end of the workshop you will take home your masterpiece!

No experience or equipment necessary, but if you have some secateurs and gardening gloves do bring them along. 

The workshop includes refreshments and cake. 

Festive Wreath Making Workshop

"Il faut cultiver son jardin."
—Voltaire

More than 130 years after it was established, inspirational landscape architect and plantswoman Anja Maubach runs her great-grandfather’s perennial plant nursery near Düsseldorf, augmenting his legacy with her own gardening philosophy and a mindful appreciation of the rhythms of life, community and the seasons. Her great-grandfather George Arends was the breeder of a number of cultivars including Aconitum x arendsii, Astilbe x arendsii, Sedum “Autumn Joy”, Hosta sieboldiana “Elegans”.

In this afternoon talk Anja draws on decades of experience to share a number of inspiring ways to work with gardens and landscapes as energy fields, where both plants and people will grow and thrive. She discusses how the process of bringing your own garden, or those of your clients, to life is also a journey into the processes of your own “inner garden”; combining spiritual rigour with horticultural excellence.

Drawing on the experience of her long career, Anja believes that in order to make projects grow, there needs to be a connection to the biography of the site or to the biography of the people - and in this talk seeks to answer the following questions:

Why do we feel attracted to the ‘energy’ of certain places?

How can we create spaces that harness their power for self healing?

How can we create connections between the garden and the gardener?


Ticketholders can explore Tom Stuart-Smith's Plant Library of 1500 herbaceous perennials and bulbs after the event. 

Friday Afternoon Talk: Grow Where You Are with Anja Maubach 

On specific Tuesdays through April to October you can visit Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith's Plant Library and Barn Garden between 10.00am–1.00pm. 

Money raised from ticket sales will go directly to The Serge Hill Project for Gardening Creativity and Health, which is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, bringing schools, community groups, mental health groups and those in need into contact with nature. 

Please note - this is a 2 garden visit only. On 6, 20 May 3, 17 June and 1 July only you can do a 3 garden visit when an additional neighbouring garden, Serge Hill opens. 

The Plant Library and The Barn Garden Visit (1 April 2025)

‘Jinny’s work pulls you into a romantic wonderland of natural beauty’ - Fergus Garett

Using the title of her successful recent book as a springboard, in this talk eminent landscape designer and writer Jinny Blom, draws on over 20 years of experience to reveal her highly individual approach to garden design; reflecting on the references, ideas and experiences that have shaped her design practice’s distinct philosophy and multidisciplinary approach. Her work, which focusses on conservation and the best use of land, has been celebrated internationally.

Sharing projects, collaborations and insights from across her career, Jinny will the explore complex constellation of ideas, experiences, thoughts and senses that explore what makes a garden.


She will expose the idea of the garden across time and cultures, and the alchemy and processes of transformation that we invest in altering our landscapes.

Much like the ingredients to make a garden itself, the talk will combine the practical and the scientific with the natural, the human, the philosophical and the arts.


An informative and inspirational evening for the widest audience of gardeners, garden designers and garden lovers.

Hosted in The Apple House eco-barn, in an old orchard, guests can explore Tom Stuart-Smith’s Plant Library of over 1500 herbaceous perennials and bulbs ahead of the talk and enjoy a drink while they do so.

Jinny Blom on What Makes A Garden

Polly Nicholson, specialist flower grower, tulip expert and author of one of 2024’s most lauded gardening books The Tulip Garden, leads this practical half day workshop in The Plant Library and Apple House looking at everything you need to know to select, collect, grow, cut and arrange species tulips, with an additional look at rare and annual tulips.

This workshop will offer inspiration, guidance and practical instruction for tulip lovers, florists, gardeners and garden designers on how to optimise growing one of the world’s most beloved blooms just as the perennial, species varieties start to bloom.

The day will start with a presentation on the wide range of tulips Polly grows at Blacklands, Nicholson’s beautiful, six-acre English country garden, through which you will discover a unique collection of rare and covetable tulips—the largest private collection of historic varieties in the United Kingdom. Polly will highlight the best species tulips, as well as some historical and rare varieties, to utilise in different settings; from naturalising them in herbaceous beds or grass through to container planting.

This will be followed by a practical session on creating perennial plantings of tulips, both species and naturalised annuals, that can be left year-on-year, including Polly’s favourite varieties and combinations, as well as how to plant and care for them based on her experiences.

Attendees also get time to explore Tom Stuart-Smith's famous Plant Library, home to over 1500 perennials and bulbs. 

The Tulip Garden Workshop: Growing, Collecting and Cutting Species Rare and Annual Varieties Year-On-Year with Polly Nicholson

The Plant Library and The Barn Garden Visit (15 April 2025)

A special opening with 3 gardens. Visit Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith's renowned Plant Library of over 1500 perennials and shrubs and Barn Garden as well as Kate Stuart-Smith's neighbouring stunning Serge Hill Garden from 10.00am–1.00pm. 

All profits raised from ticket sales will go directly to The Serge Hill Project which is a not for profit CIC (Community Interest Company) which works to bring local schools, youth organisations, mental health charities and community groups into contact with nature for the benefits of their health, wellbeing and creativity.

Explore The Plant Library

Sign Up for Access