The Vita Sackville-West garden that 'numbed generations of gardeners into a state of hopelessness' has finally been completed, 64 years after her death
The Greek-inspired Delos garden at Sissinghurst has at last been created, with Dan Pearson and the National Trust working alongside the team at this magical Kent house. Julie Harding reports.
'Sissinghurst, as I see it, is an amalgam of peaks and troughs,' wrote the great Christopher Lloyd in Country Life in 1996.
'On the peaks its reputation hangs,' he continues. 'In contrast, there are areas where little seems to happening... worst of all is the area called Delos, outside the entrance to the Priest's House. Why this has never been taken by the scruff beats me. I know if faces north and that cold winds sometimes blow through it, but we are talking about Kent when all's said and done. Delos seems to have mesmerised generations of gardeners into a state of number helplessness.'
Lloyd would no doubt be delighted, because over the last couple of years, Dan Pearson and the National Trust's team of gardeners at Sissinghurst have done just that. This neglected corner of one of England's most celebrated gardens has finally been completed according to the original vision of Vita Sackville-West.
Vita Sackville-West herself wrote about the Sissinghurst garden for Country Life in September 1942: 'The plan was inspired by the island of Delos, where the ruins of the houses have left precisely this kind of little terrace, smoetherd there by mats of the wildflowers of Greece,' she wrote, before admitting that 'the Delos of Sissinghurst deserves perhaps more careful planting than it has hitherto received.'
The story of the Delos garden began in 1935. Following a trip to the Greek island, Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson, were inspired to re-create its essence in their own garden at Sissinghurst. In 1953, the author and garden designer commented: ‘This has not been a success so far, but perhaps some day it will come right.’ The project had been blighted by both the Kent climate and the garden’s north-facing position.
It might have taken more than 90 years, but National Trust staff and landscape designer Pearson — a multiple Chelsea gold medallist — have worked in partnership to bring to life the couple’s vision to life. They've added gritty topsoil, raised terracing and put in about 6,000 typically Mediterranean perennials, as well as numerous other plants. Now, the work is done, and the Delos garden is open to the public.
‘From towering thistles and zesty euphorbias to frilled Greek horehound and the bright flowers of the Cretan rockrose, the plant combinations here are endlessly beautiful, interesting and evocative,’ says Sissinghurst senior gardener Richard Gravett.
‘Delos is a part of the conversation around using water more wisely and how we might be gardening in a changing climate. In the recent heatwave, the plants in Delos have kept performing, whereas some other plants in the garden have shown signs of stress.’
See more at the Sissinghurst page on the National Trust's website.
A shorter version of this story originally appears in the print edition of Country Life of June 17, 2026. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
