STERN INTRODUCTIONS AT HIGHDOWN.

Historic Plant Collections are part of the Trust’s remit and it is good to be able to report that Sir Frederick Stern’s collection of plants at Highdown, Goring, near Worthing, flourishes under the care of the current head gardener Chris Beardsley and Worthing Borough Council.

Frederick Stern bought Highdown in 1909 when he was only 25. Although he did not settle down there until he married in 1919, the rock garden round the pond was planted and finished by 1910 and many of the best plants at Highdown came from Veitch & Son’s sale at Coombe Wood in 1912. In 1914 he subscribed to Reginald Farrer’s expedition to Yunnan and Kansu. During the First World War Stern was twice mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the Military Cross. (He had always been very adventurous; as a young man he had a reputation as a big game hunter and a successful amateur jockey.)

Today Highdown has the National Plant Collection of Stern introductions and although many of these are no longer available commercially, they can still be found in the garden.

Two roses that are still available and still very popular are R. ‘Highdownensis’ (moyesii hybrid) which dates from 1928 and R.‘Wedding Day’, 1950. The names of several of the white climbing roses that are rather similar to Rosa brunonii (syn. R. moschata var. nepalensis) to be found in the garden were not even known by Graham Stuart Thomas. Another Stern rose, ‘Coral seedling’ appears in the list of Plants introduced by Sir F. Stern as being still in the garden..

Other plants introduced by Sir Frederick – who was knighted in 1956 –are Berberis x lologensis, Highdown form; Eremurus ‘Highdown hybrids’, Narcissus ‘Broadwater’, N. ‘Goring’. Magnolia x highdownensis; the peonies, ‘Emma; ‘Sybil Stern’ and ‘Peggy Synge’. There are also two nerines in the glasshouse, Highdown orange and Highdown scarlet.

Sir Frederick’s life illustrates how gardening is influenced by fashion. When he bought chalky Highdown in the early part of the 20^th century, grand gardens grew rhododendrons. Several friends told him that it was a waste of time trying to grow anything on chalk – the implication being that if you couldn’t grow rhododendrons you could not have a proper garden. Stern was also credited with the revival of interest in the cultivation of lilies. He founded the Lily Group of the RHS and was involved in the Lily Conference of 1933. Today it seems amazing that there was ever a time when lilies were not popular. Stern published monographs on peonies, ‘A Study of the Genus Paeonia’ and on ‘Snowdrops and Snowflakes’ but it is his book on the making of the garden at Highdown, ‘A Chalk Garden’, published in 1960 by Faber that is still relevant to gardeners today.

The garden at Highdown is open every day of the year. Entry is free. Do go. There is always something to see from hellebores to narcissi, from irises and peonies to old roses and splendid autumn colour, bark and berries.

A much longer account of Sir Frederick Stern and the garden at Highdown appears in Hortus, Autumn, 2000.

Barbara Abbs