Greenbank Garden is a 18th century

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate ...

in Carolside, Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, Scotland, owned and operated by the

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland ( gd, Urras Nàiseanta na h-Alba), is a Scottish conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organi ...

and open to the public. It is situated about six miles (10 km) from the centre of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. The garden, which is included on the

Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland The ''Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland'' is a listing of gardens and designed landscapes of national artistic and/or historical significance, in Scotland. The Inventory was originally compiled in 1987, although it is a cont ...

, surrounds Greenbank House, a Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The house has sixteen rooms, and also barns and stables.

History

The

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

house was built in 1763 for Robert Allason, a Glasgow merchant. Allason was a local man who had begun life as a baker, before setting up with his brothers in Port Glasgow as a trader. He made his fortune trading with Britain's American colonies, eventually becoming a land-holder in the Caribbean. The profits from trade in both tobacco and slaves, allowed him to purchase Flenders Farm (land his family had worked for centuries) and establish the house. However, Allason's trading interests later suffered during the American War of Independence. Over the next two centuries, the house was owned by a number of families, principally several generations of the Hamilton family, from 1796 to 1961.Nisbet and Welsh (1992) ''Robert Allason and Greenbank'', Giffnock: Eastwood District Libraries In 1961, it was bought by William P. Blyth who, with his wife, transformed the grounds from fruit and vegetable growing to the ornamental gardens that are seen today. Then, in 1976, Mr and Mrs Blyth gifted the house,

, and the estate to the

. In 1981, an additional 20 acres were donated by the Young family (descendants of the Hamiltons). Today, the gardens are open all year round, and the house from March until October.

Description

Described as an "educational garden to inspire and educate visitors on what and how to grow a very wide range of more unusual plants which are available in the trade", Greenbank Garden's distinctive feature is its use of hedging and tall plants to divide the gardens into about twelve distinctly characteristic areas. The gardens contain over 3,700 plants depending on the season. These include spring bulbs, apple and cherry blossom, astilbe, aubretia, deutzia, dicentra, saxifrages, hydrangeas, primulas, dahlias, roses, philadelphus, azalea, rhododendron, lythrum, crocosmia, phlox, cosmos, echinops, sedum, lavatera, monarda, helenium and sweet william, as well as rodgersia pinnata superba, echevaria gibbiflora metallica and agrostemma. The National Trust operates a tea-room next to the garden, where there is a substantial encyclopædia of plants, allowing visitors to identify specimens they do not recognise. As well as the walled garden and the house, there are also of

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

marked particularly by rhododendrons. The woodland also contains a herd of Highland cattle.

References

{{commons category, Greenbank House, Clarkston, Greenbank House

External links

National Trust for Scotland websiteVideo footage of the Slip Gates at the Greenbank GardenVideo footage of the Greenbank Gardens Scottish Sundial
National Trust for Scotland properties Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Gardens in East Renfrewshire Clarkston, East Renfrewshire