A Week at Benton End: Reconnecting horticulture and generosity

On a very early November morning I set out into the mist towards Benton End, the former home of artist and plantsman Cedric Morris. With my bags packed full of woollen jumpers, muddy boots and art books, I would spend my days out gardening and my nights tucked up in Cedric’s bedroom. Benton End’s garden, headed up by James Horner, is not only returning plants, but uncovering the rich horticultural and artistic communities which have long been present in East Anglia. Through a process-based approach in collaboration with so many, the rich, vibrant legacy of Cedric is growing once again as a place of learning, creativity and intellectual freedom. 

Settling into the Suffolk Countryside, Cedric Morris with his partner Arthur Lett Haines created both the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing and a horticulturally rich garden with an incredible collection of Irises, becoming a haven for artists, gardeners, and those seeking freedom and refuge. Gifted to the Garden Museum by the Pinchbeck Trust in 2021, Benton End is being renewed as a place for horticultural and arts, eventually for residencies and to be open to the public. It began with Head Gardener Matt Collins’ year as a custodian of Benton End and now as part of my traineeship, I was given the opportunity to spend a week working and learning there.

Arriving at Ipswich station, I was kindly given a lift from Jonathan Zerr, former Benton End Trainee and now gardener there. Outside the great wooden door I was met by head gardener James Horner with a steaming cup of coffee, and invited to set out into the magic garden. James carries out a process-based approach to the garden, seeing it not as reproducing Morris’ old garden, but being guided by his spirit. With this in mind, we spent many hours weeding over conversations on botany, the value of gardening, community and life. When the new WRAGS Trainee Sarah came, we spent a morning sorting through seeds which James had saved from the garden, including Cedric Morris sweetpeas, which had been given to him by Matt Collins (received originally from Dan Pearson). 

We spent time weeding in the Iris stockbeds and found tiny Iris seedlings which we potted up and put in the greenhouse, hoping in two years’ time they might flower. James and I also scarified the meadow in the walled garden, which is going to be incorporated with his design in collaboration with garden designer Sarah Price for the central part of the garden for artists to paint, visitors to enjoy, and for wildlife to make their home. Scattering seeds, I began to appreciate how making a garden and a community takes time, and it is through this consistent, dedicated work of James and his team that this garden will begin to become a space for gathering again. 

Across the week, I found how Benton End has already started to bring people together, where there has already held a gathering for gardeners across the region. In particular, I’ve been interested in the friendship between Beth Chatto and Cedric, after spending hours last year on the website captivated by the velvety Benton Irises Beth continued to grow after Cedric’s passing. I’d spent time in the Beth Chatto archives supported by Garden Museum Archivist Rob Hillman, looking at her photographs, correspondence and articles all saved with great love and affection for finding inspiration from Cedric in her own garden and nursery.

This relationship between Beth Chatto and Benton End yet is not just historic, but very much alive. I invited friends from Beth Chatto, Åsa, Cathy and Sean, to join us for dinner and sparklers on Bonfire Night and cosied together in the kitchen we ate and talked of the friendship between Beth and Cedric and the gardens continue to evolve inspired by their spirits. 

In particular, Beth Chatto gardener Cathy Butcher has been spending her placement days at Benton End to continue to learn more about the connections between the gardens and help in the renewal process. Coming to pick me up as the sun was setting, Cathy had me over for a cup of tea at her home, a lovely moment of warmth at the end of a good day outside in the garden. Gardening has so often been about friendship and inspiring each other, and since my placement at Beth Chatto in May, I’ve been really lucky to have found a lot of friendship and support in the Beth Chatto team. It is in this spirit of generosity and sharing James, Jonathan and Matthew are continuing at Benton End through renewing, maintaining, and creating new relationships. 

One particular champion of Benton End is garden writer Barbara Segall, who on hearing I was going to be visiting very kindly invited me over for lunch of homemade soup and herbs she’d grown in her garden. Well-known in UK horticulture and especially in East Anglia, Barbara shared her knowledge and connections about the community of gardeners, artists and plants people who have generously looked after Cedric’s legacy. 

These Irises I am so in love with, Barbara tells me only exist because of the East Anglian garden community which has distributed, safeguarded and rediscovered them. Forefronted in particular by Jenny Robinson, Morris’ horticultural executor who helped pass on Morris’ plants to local plants people, and Sarah Cook who has spent her retirement searching for his Irises, and now holds the Plant Heritage National Collection of Iris (Sir Cedric Morris introductions). Beth Chatto again in particular has played a vital role through her long friendship with Morris in hosting his plants. James has been invited to Beth Chatto’s garden to receive plants and recently collected seed from plants Morris grew with Propagation Expert Emily Allard. 

As the nights drew in, I crept up the stairs to Cedric’s old bedroom, which has recently been refurbished and beautifully decorated. Handmade quilts were layered over a thick duvet; woollen blankets were draped across chairs for guests to sit and leaf through Morris’ artworks. I snuck under the covers and thought about how Cedric laid here too, both of us tired after a day’s work but completely satisfied by the joy of being surrounded by wonderful plants, friends, and how through the persistence of generous horticulturists and the wider community, Cedric’s spirit can live on.