Bodnant Garden: Change for the better?

Although it belongs to the National Trust, Bodnant's 130-acre garden, with its five Italianate terraces, rhododendron valley, and epic view over the eastern edge of the Snowdonia mountain range, has always had the air of a separate fiefdom. Together with the wider estate, the huge, granite hall in the middle of the garden is still privately owned and occupied by the McLaren/Aberconway family, who developed the garden from the 1870s onwards and gave it to the National Trust in 1949.

But, most unusually, the family also still maintains its influence over the garden – run by a full-time NT staff of 21, together with volunteers and trainees, led by head gardener Troy Scott Smith – with little input from NT head office. "We can draw on them, but horticultural decisions are really left to Troy and me," says Michael McLaren QC, who took charge of the estate in 2003.

This laissez-faire attitude by the NT was in deference to the horticultural prowess of his grandfather, second Lord Aberconway (who created much of the garden), and his father, third Lord Aberconway (who, like his father, was President of the Royal Horticultural Society), and their head gardeners (three generations of the Puddle family). Bodnant is still largely steered in the old-fashioned way, with head gardener and "boss" walking the grounds together.

When changes are made here, they reflect personal taste more than in other NT gardens. And since Troy's arrival in 2006, there have indeed been changes. In fact, such a major programme of improvements has been under way that almost every section of the garden seems to have been enveloped. Some of these changes I think are wonderful; others I am nervous about.

I met up with Troy by the new hot-coloured entrance border he designed three years ago. The assortment of hardy and tender perennials, including blood-red Salvia fulgens and a beautiful apricot agastache new to me called 'Summer Glow', was still going strong in the autumn sunshine.

Across the lawn a cercidiphyllum tree was a cloud of orange and yellow. Troy's skills as a plantsman were honed at Sissinghurst and The Courts in Wiltshire; having completed his student placement year at Bodnant in 1990, he seized the chance of returning as head gardener, especially with the prospect of overseeing a regeneration plan.

In spite of being voted Britain's favourite garden by Daily Telegraph readers in 2000, there was a widely held feeling (including by me) that the garden was starting to look tired. "Lord Aberconway didn't call for change, and there was little renewal pruning of old shrubs – in fact, gardeners were constantly told not to touch this or that plant because they were His Lordship's favourites," Troy tells me. Woody areas had become overgrown, the rose gardens were worn out, and summer interest on the terraces was thin.

"Michael asked me to produce a rolling plan of improvements to renew and refresh the garden, which we agreed in principle, and then year by year I have presented detailed plans for particular areas." The new entrance building, together with other facilities, was made possible by a substantial grant from the EU – part of the regeneration funding for the local area. Other improvements are being financed by visitor income and the garden's endowment fund.

PERENNIALLY POPULAR

The upper rose terrace was one of the first areas tackled, with the soil in every bed replaced, and a largely new cast of repeat-flowering roses introduced. It has been a huge success, and was still stuffed with flower on the day of my visit from the likes of red 'Darcey Bussell', the superb deep crimson 'Falstaff', white 'Susan Williams-Ellis' and peach 'Ann Aberconway' ('William Shakespeare' and 'Margaret Merrill' have been removed for not performing).

At the same time, the terrace was extended to the side, again successfully, overseen by Michael. "I am very interested in the architecture of gardens – buildings, steps, walls and pathways," he told me. There is much restoration of such structural features taking place, and the terraces' photogenic Pin Mill is next for refurbishment. Plant choices and planting plans originate with Troy, but Michael offers an informed second opinion.

Traditionally, Bodnant's fame has rested on its scenically displayed tree and shrub collection, which ranges from towering 19th-century conifers to exotics such as the melon-scented Magnolia hypoleuca and scarlet Chilean fire bush (Embothrium), brought back from Chile in a plant-hunting expedition part-financed by Michael's grandfather. "But when it comes to perennials, I felt we were punching below our weight," he says.

Not any more. The greatest transformation regular visitors to Bodnant will have noticed in recent years is the burgeoning of the perennial displays.

Beyond the great cedar trees down on the Lily Terrace, a wispy, soft-hued scheme of pampas and pennisetum grasses, pendulous dieramas, pink 'Felicia' roses, and Salvia nemorosa 'Amethyst' has replaced the dull old alstroemerias and orange daylilies. Opposite the new entrance border, itself a vibrant reworking of what used to be a clunky bed spiked with phormiums, the irises in the old iris border are now interwoven with a ribbon of violet 'Monch' asters, creamy 'Matrona' sedum, pink schizostylis and Stipa calamagrostis grasses.

RHODO LEGACY

There is no doubting the beauty of such schemes – I took loads of photos – but the sophisticated, modern artistry in the arrangement of these perennials seems to me to be quite a departure. This garden has never been Sissinghurst. It has always been about majestic sweeps, chunky features and great slabs of plants (particularly acid-loving rarities), and has scorned tasteful colour coordination (see the shocking pink azaleas chosen as a partner for the canary yellow laburnums in the famous arch).

It is a tricky one. Troy can't help being talented. The results draw in the crowds. The borders are better than what was there before. On the other hand, if historic gardens are allowed to change too much, responding to trends, and start to resemble each other, what is the point of preserving them? Personality change hasn't happened at Bodnant yet, but I am flashing an amber light.

One of Bodnant's problems is that its stars are the rhododendrons and azaleas. They feature throughout. Rhodos are not fashionable, and being mostly dull when out of flower are a headache for gardens trying to attract visitors all through the year. But the legacy needs cherishing.

"At Bodnant between the Twenties and the Seventies, 330 hybrids were raised and we still have 120 of them," Troy tells me. Some varieties, like 'Winsome' (one of the best and most compact of a panoply of red-flowered Bodnant forms), are commonly grown but most were not widely dispersed. "So it is important that we propagate the ones we have; we are on the lookout for the others." He has been introducing lilies as a means of extending colour among the rhodos, which I think is a great idea, and where there is enough light, other perennials.

The regenerative pruning of tall rhodos and camellias around the oval bathing pool, ringed by pink Rhododendron williamsianum, has turned a gloomy spot into a honeypot for visitors, and I love the exotic mood fuelled by new plants such as orange-flowered Begonia sutherlandii, scarlet zauschneria, and the elegant, tricoloured fuchsia 'Lady Bacon'.

But further up the slope, a massive planting of Japanese azaleas has been sacrificed for a brand new winter garden set around some meandering rockery beds. Winter opening is a new venture for Bodnant. "My father used to say it was one of his favourite times of year here, when the skeleton of the garden was exposed," says Michael, and with many other NT gardens now open during this season, he and Troy were keen to follow suit. Coloured-stemmed birches and shrubs, bulbs and bergenias now provide a cold season hot spot.

OUT WITH THE OLD

As with the revamped perennial borders, there is a lot more intricacy and small-scale plant grouping than you would traditionally associate with Bodnant. And, although a scattering of winter-flowering rhodos like pink 'Nobleanum', purple R. rirei and camellia 'Cornish Snow' are included, a definite change of mood has taken place. The sacrificed azaleas are no great loss, but I wouldn't want to see any more of the rhodo zones going the same way.

The old gentian bed by the entrance has also gone, replaced by box and sarcococca, which is a shame, and again doesn't seem historically justified. The same goes for the new hot-coloured bed beside it; perhaps it could have found a raison d'être by evoking the family's former Mediterranean garden, La Garoupe, as a theme.

Bodnant has always been one of my favourite gardens, and I have been visiting since childhood. It is terrific seeing it being injected with new life. The renewal programme will extend to other areas, with many, currently private, acres of the woodland likely to open. I have no doubt the garden will continue to get better and better under Michael and Troy's direction; I just don't want it to get ever more different.