Transylvania

For the past few years I’ve been working in rural Transylvania; forget what you know of Dracula, this is an incredibly beautiful and unspoilt region which deserves to be more widely known.

Transylvania is a province of Romania and lies in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, where wolves, lynxes and bears still run wild. Extensive hay meadows abound with garden-worthy plants including Salvias, Veronicas, Cerinthe and Dictamnus; it’s quite something to see these en masse, in perfect plant associations. There are some rarities, too, including Salvia nutans (nodding sage), with its rich purple upturned cones of flowers held on long stems above the grasses.

Equally enthralling as the landscape is the architecture, where unpaved village streets are lined with colourful lime-washed houses and the medieval churches were fortified to offer refuge from invaders.

Each house has a cobbled yard with a couple of cows, a well, an ‘earth closet’ and a small plot for vegetables, herbs and peonies, while turkeys, chickens, guinea fowl and geese roam freely about.

While my colleagues are involved more directly with development, my part is in planning a Transylvanian Show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It will be a contemporary interpretation of the landscape and flora, utilising traditional skills to show their continued relevance in today’s society (and not a bulb of garlic in sight!)