Stone House Cottage Garden & Nursery: A Walled Worcestershire Sanctuary for Rare Climbers and Shrubs
A Walled Worcestershire Sanctuary for Rare Climbers and Shrubs
Tucked down a drive next to a stone church, two miles out of Kidderminster on the Bromsgrove Road, Stone House Cottage Garden & Nursery is one of the most quietly extraordinary gardens in the West Midlands. The site is not a vineyard: it is a one-acre walled garden with an adjoining retail plant nursery, founded in 1975 and run by Louisa, who has spent decades assembling a remarkable collection of rare and unusual wall shrubs, climbers and lesser-grown herbaceous plants.
The combination of a mature display garden and a working nursery is what makes Stone House Cottage such a rewarding place to visit. As Mary Keen wrote in The Independent, "visiting a nursery like this, which has a garden attached, means that you come home with as many ideas as you do plants."
The Garden: A Romantic Walled Sanctuary
"A romantic garden set in an old walled kitchen garden. The area is only 1 acre but seems much larger - hedges divide it into different compartments and create diverse habitats in which to grow the vast selection of rare and unusual plants that thrive here. Unusual brick follies adorn the walls and these in turn, are covered with a multitude of climbing and twining plants in which the garden specialises. The garden acts as a shop window for the adjoining nursery."
Roy Lancaster, writing in The Garden, observed that "Louisa seems to have a remarkable way with plants, especially the more desirable ones and is not intimidated by a plant's recalcitrant reputation," while Robin Lane-Fox described it as simply "an enchanting garden" in the Financial Times. Stephen Lacey, writing in The Daily Telegraph, praised the way the borders are staged "with a fine eye for texture, shape and colour."
Why the Walled Setting Matters
The old kitchen-garden walls do more than define the space. They provide the warm, sheltered microclimate that allows Louisa to grow plants at the edge of their hardiness range: Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' with its electric purple-blue summer foliage; the winter-flowering Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles', whose cream flowers are so heavily blotched with maroon that they appear deep pink; the sweetly-scented Edgeworthia chrysantha; and a tall specimen of Buddleia colvilei 'Kewensis' that has reached at least fifteen feet against a sunny wall.
The Nursery: Plants You Seldom See Anywhere Else
The adjoining nursery stocks plants of almost all that grow in the garden, and the list includes many shrubs and climbers "hardly ever seen for sale in this country." Louisa specialises in three overlapping areas:
- Wall shrubs - slow-growing, often tender plants that thrive against the protected backdrop of the garden walls.
- Climbers - including unusual Clematis, Dregea sinensis, Mandevilla laxa, Stauntonia hexaphylla and the curious aestivating Clematis napaulensis.
- Lesser-grown herbaceous plants - an ever-expanding list of rarities, priced between £4.50 and £8.00 each.
The full plant list is published each year as a downloadable PDF and is split into three parts: shrubs and small trees, climbers and herbaceous. The current list (2024) is long and reflects decades of trialling.
Highlights from the Shrubs and Small Trees List
The shrub list includes such treasures as Abutilon megapotamicum, Buddleia crispa 'Stone House Cottage' (a variegated sport that appeared in the garden), Campylotropis macrocarpa, several Desmodium species, Euphorbia mellifera, Euphorbia stygiana santamariae, a clutch of unusual Fuchsia (including 'Lady Boothby', 'Sharpitor' and Fuchsia magellanica 'Versicolor'), several Indigofera species and cultivars, Lespedeza, the architectural Melianthus major, the wall-dwelling Mitraria coccinea 'Lake Puyehue', and Santolina.
Highlights from the Climbers List
The climbers section is short but choice, including Aconitum austroyunnanense, Bomarea caldasii and the much-loved Mandevilla laxa.
Highlights from the Herbaceous List
Louisa's herbaceous range is by far the largest, with hundreds of entries. A few of the more eye-catching names give a sense of the breadth: many Agapanthus cultivars (from 'Flore Pleno' and 'Liam's Lilac' to 'Navy Blue' and variegated forms), a deep bench of Anemone nemorosa cultivars (including 'Blue Eyes', 'Bowles Purple', 'Green Dream', 'Knightshayes Vestal' and 'Westwell Pink'), numerous Crocosmia cultivars, a large collection of Epimedium species and hybrids (including 'Kaguyahime', 'Pink Champagne', 'Wushanense Caramel' and Epimedium epsteinii), a strong range of Salvia (microphylla forms, patens 'Cambridge Blue', 'Royal Bumble', 'Silas Dyson' and many more), and unusual genera such as Dierama, Disporum, Podophyllum, Tricyrtis, Roscoea, Trillium, Scopolia, Ypsilandra, Veratrum and Uvularia.
Louisa's Journal
Louisa keeps a long-running online journal that has become a quietly influential record of what grows well in the British climate at the edge of hardiness. The journal is organised both chronologically and by tag (climber, shrub, plants), and currently runs to five pages.
Among the plants Louisa has profiled in the journal:
- Winter and early-spring interest: Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles', Chimonanthus praecox, Oemleria cerasiformis, Abeliophyllum distichum, Atherospermum moschatum, Prinsepia sinensis and Edgeworthia chrysantha.
- Late-spring highlights: Magnolia wilsonii (with its three- to four-inch pendulous lemon-scented flowers), Skimmia laureola, Jasminum mesneyi and Stauntonia hexaphylla.
- Early-summer: Buddleia colvilei 'Kewensis', Michelia yunnanensis, Decumaris sinensis and Clematis fusca.
- Mid-summer: the violet pea-flowered Carmichaelia australis, Cionura oreophila, Dregea sinensis, Genista aetnensis, Albizzia julibrissin 'Rosea', Clematis viticella and Bignonia capreolata.
- Late-summer and autumn: the aromatic Vitex agnus-castus latifolia, the Mexican Cobaea pringlei, Itea ilicifolia, the superbly-scented Clethra barbinervis, Fuchsia 'Lady Boothby', and the almost-ever-blooming Jasminum bignoniaceum.
- Wall shrubs of note: Mitraria coccinea 'Lake Puye' (a wonderful evergreen for a shady sheltered wall), Psoralea glandulosa (the Jesuit's tea tree), and the hardy evergreen Illicium simonsii BWJ 8024 from China.
- Tender-but-worth-it choices: the purple-leaved Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea'.
- Winter marvels revisited: Clematis napaulensis, which aestivates in June and then produces cream flowers against purple stems in autumn.
Press Coverage
The garden has drawn warm attention from national newspapers and magazines over the years. Two pieces stand out:
- Financial Times, July 2020 - coverage that further cemented the garden's reputation beyond the horticultural press.
- RHS Garden Magazine, April 2018 - a feature by Stephen Lacey with photographs by Jenny Lilly. The magazine summarised the garden as "Overflowing with treasures like some exotic fairytale casket, the bounty of this RHS Partner Garden in Worcestershire is shared - together with its owner's experience - through the adjoining nursery." (read the "Box of Delights" article.)
Note: Stone House Cottage is no longer an RHS Partner Garden, so the 2-for-1 entry offer from Gardeners' World no longer applies.
Planning Your Visit
Opening Times
For 2026 the garden and nursery are open from Thursday 16 April to Saturday 29 August 2026, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday only, from 10am to 5pm. Louisa notes that this is a change of open days from previous seasons, so visitors should check back for updates, follow her on Instagram or Facebook, or join the mailing list for seasonal updates.
Admission
Admission to the garden is £5.00 per adult; children are free. It is also noted, wryly, that any children should be kept on a lead.
How to Get There
Stone House Cottage Nurseries is at Church Lane, near Kidderminster, Worcestershire, DY10 4BG. From the Bromsgrove Road (A448), the drive next to Stone Church leads to the house and gardens. From Birmingham, Worcester or Bromsgrove, the nursery is a quarter of a mile further on than the Stone Manor Hotel.
Dogs
Unfortunately, dogs are not permitted in the garden or nursery. Louisa's own elderly dogs are very excitable in the presence of other canine visitors.
Group Visits
Louisa welcomes visits from flower groups, horticultural societies and similar clubs, and is happy to provide an introductory talk. Evening visits, or visits on the days she is normally closed, can be arranged for groups of over twenty. Refreshments are not provided, but she can suggest nearby venues. The 2-for-1 Gardeners' World scheme does not apply to group visits, and the garden is no longer an RHS Partner Garden. To arrange a group visit, contact Louisa via the contact details provided or see Group Visits information.
Plant List and Downloads
The 2024 plant list is freely available in three PDF parts:
Louisa notes that not all the plants will be ready at the beginning of the season and some may be in short supply; the herbaceous range in particular is increased each year.
Practical Tips for Visitors
- Look round the garden first. Almost every plant for sale can be seen growing in the walled garden, so a slow circuit before browsing the nursery pays dividends.
- Bring a notebook. The combination of rarity, mature size and microclimate information is the kind of detail that rarely makes it into a label.
- Plan around the open days. The garden is only open three days a week, Thursday to Saturday, and only between mid-April and late August.
- Consider group visits. For clubs and societies, the introductory talk plus private access is excellent value and rarely available from small specialist gardens.
Final Word
Stone House Cottage is a horticultural gem: a one-acre walled garden that doubles as a shop window for an adjoining nursery specialising in plants you will struggle to find anywhere else. Whether you visit for the Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' scrambling over the walls in winter, the towering Buddleia colvilei 'Kewensis' in early summer, or simply to wander the compartments and pick up a new Epimedium or Salvia, a morning at Stone House Cottage tends to leave visitors with both ideas and plants to take home - which, as Mary Keen observed, is the whole point.