Stellenberg Gardens Virtual Tour

Hi, I'm Andrew. Welcome to Stellenberg. First-time visitors to Stellenberg are often pleasantly surprised when they see the manor house, its werf, its well and its surrounding buildings. And often questions are asked as to the history and our family ownership before the garden visit even starts. During most of the 17th century, the land on which it is situated was open to all, but in 1697 an area of approximately 50 hectares was registered under Dutch law. Further grants and a purchase increased the estate to over 100 hectares during the 18th century. Owners under Dutch rule included François van der Stel, son of Simon, the first governor of the Cape, Christina van Canaray, unconditionally willed to succeed François van der Stel as owner upon her emancipation after his return to Holland, Jan de Witt, formerly John White, and his son Pietrus from 1742 to 1767, who built the present manor house, and Johannes Isaac Greenius, second-in-command and treasurer of the Cape towards the end of the 18th century, who is said to have employed the noted French architect Louis-Michel Thiebaud to embellish the house. The arrival of the British in 1806 marked the beginning of more than a century under direct British rule. Understandably, British influence increased at the Cape to the chagrin of many Dutch-speaking citizens. The popularity of Cape architecture in the Dutch style was superseded by Regency and Victorian styles, both arriving here considerably later than in Britain. Many Cape Dutch buildings became dated and even dilapidated, making them ripe for Victorianisation by the 1870s. Stellenberg owes its present authenticity to the Feltham family, owners from 1878 to 1930. Although major subdivision of the estate took place under their watch, they resisted any temptation to victorianise the manor house or other buildings. By the mid-1920s, the Victorian style at the Cape had passed, and the two subsequent owners, Professor Charles Saint in the 1930s and Robin Stratford in the 1940s, maintained the property to a high standard. Hence the Obenstone family came to Stellenberg in 1953 to find classical Cape Dutch architecture, already featured in books and paintings, gardens, fashionable in the 1930s and 1940s, the original Werff or Square, with its well and surrounding 18th century buildings, old walls, benches and bridges. This was also the beginning of a period during which the restoration of old Cape Dutch and Cape Regency buildings was encouraged, and to this end, some, including Stellenberg, were given National Monument, now Heritage, status. Sandy and I returned to Stellenberg in 1973 after undertaking the restoration of an important outbuilding, which had been damaged by fire in 1971. Sandy understood that she did not have a blank canvas on which to redesign the gardens. She took her time and only made minor changes for more than a decade until she felt ready to embark on her garden story, by which time there was no doubt that Sandy would use what was here as central to her design ideas. Hi, I'm Sandy. Welcome to my garden. When we returned to Stellenberg in 1973, we inherited a garden with lawns, English oaks, a row of hydrangeas and a shrubbery at the bottom of the garden. So in 1987 I did the herb garden, which I realised in time had been done too far from the house, under the drip line of a tree, and so that was the first big mistake I made, but that's how you learn. We then created the White Garden in 1989. After that, we made two English borders above the White Garden, which we changed 15 years ago to a white parterre of iceberg roses. Here we are in the white parterre. The white parterre was inspired by a garden I saw in Tuscany with the four squares of iceberg roses. The hedging we have used here is Rusconata, and as you can see, Jonas, who works in this garden, has used his own creativity to cut the hedges in the manner that you see them here. What we did here, where we had a slope, was to build these deep steps up to the lawn. Here we have the vegetable garden. The plans of the vegetable garden are based on the plans of a medieval garden. You have the paths, the sign of the cross, water, the source of life, vegetables, fruit, medicinal healing herbs and flowers for the altar. This is the Paradise Garden. We've based the Paradise Garden on water, jewel-coloured flowers, green, white, cool colours. We also have planted Brugmansia, which flowers at different times of the year, but mainly in summer. Our builder Saeed created the windows in the Burqab style and set 18th-century Persian tiles into the wall above them, in recognition of our people of Malay descent. We return again to the Aromatic Herb Garden. The design of the garden is the Cross of St Andrews, in a way honouring my husband's Scottish background. We have planted here aromatic plants. We've got plants also that are indigenous and medicinal. And you can see that we have filled every triangle here with one herb or two herbs. With oregano, thyme, rosemary, verveine, Moroccan mint and nepeta. These are the hydrangea beds. This is the original Cape hydrangea found in many Cape houses. When we came here, there was one row of hydrangeas, and we have pulled the beds out into two deep curves to show them off better. This is the Wild Garden. This is the original shrubbery that was here when I came here. And many of the plants would have been planted here 1920s, 1930s. The two most iconic plants here are the two Pride of Indias. We have put the paths back, as I was told to do by the lady who lived here in the 1940s. And we've planted many of the old-fashioned shrubs here, like wijilias, acromas and privets. We have underplanted with geranium, cranesbill, darmatica. In 1994, we planted two rows of cherry trees in this area. They started well, but sadly began to suffer 15 years later. We replaced them with prolific Tahiti lime trees in 2013, and recently have added the pathway which leads to an original coffee club wall. Thus, the Cherry Walk became the Lime Walk. This is the Upper Stream Garden. Eleven years ago, this was a jungle, and my husband said to me, let's clear it and redirect the stream and make a garden. So that's what we did. We did all the clearing. I had my doubts. In fact, I stood silent at most of the meetings because I couldn't quite understand what was going to happen. But of course, now I love it. We inherited the palm trees here, which are Phoenix Reclinata, a palm found in Africa. We redirected the stream into three ponds. We circulate the water in summer because we don't have enough water that can run naturally. And we've planted many different types of ferns in this garden. This is the Garden of Reflection, designed by Francesca Watson, who also helped us in the White Parterre, the Vegetable Garden, and the Upper Stream Garden. The Garden of Reflection is reflection for the mind and reflection in water. The sound of water is soothing. The color green is predominant, even though we have planted blue tradescantia along the boundaries of the wall. But other than that, the only color is green. Green is a color, and for me, the most important color in a garden. The tiles on these steps were designed for us by Ella Lou O'Mara. Each tile depicts a scene of the garden. This is the Vine Walk. When David Hicks designed the walled garden, he suggested we did this walk behind the one wall. He originally wanted it to be a tunnel, but we decided that it would be too much work. So we did the Vine Walk with vines that don't bear grapes, and we've clipped walls along here, and we're making a cloud hedge. The two old benches here date back to the 1850s. This is the Walled Garden, designed by David Hicks, who gave me much general advice and encouragement, both inside the house and in other areas of the garden. In 1988, having watched my husband playing tennis, he declared the time ripe to replace the tennis court with a garden. This is the garden drawn by David Hicks and implemented by Andrew for our 25th wedding anniversary in 1989. It started with a blaze of color, but today is planted very simply on the one side, and more effusively on the other side with flowers. We started Stellenberg Gardens Nursery in 1993 to provide our gardens with plants, particularly hedging plants. The nursery has since expanded to serve the public and visually has become an additional room in our gardens. COVID-19 made 2020 a difficult year. For the first time, we had to abandon our open weekends for charity, which are highlights for our gardening and nursery staff. Since 2015, the open weekends have been in aid of St. Joseph's Home for Chronically Ill Children. St. Joseph's in Cape Town has provided rehabilitation and palliative care facilities for vulnerable children since 1935. The use of funds raised by them at Stellenberg is carefully monitored. Any donations to this worthy cause would be much appreciated. In case of interest, simply click below for further information. Our gardens and nursery teams were unable to work for nearly four months during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We thank our senior gardener, Jonas Nowasza, for quarantining at Stellenberg during this period. We also thank the following for their contributions to the restoration of the gardens and nursery to normal in the months which followed.