The evolution of Sarah Raven's gardens in East Sussex

Alongside developing her hugely successful eponymous business, Sarah Raven still finds time for writing and teaching. But it is in the evolution of the gardens of Perch Hill, her family home in East Sussex, that her passion for horticulture is most clearly expressed
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The private farmhouse garden was one of the first areas to be laid out by Sarah and Adam after arriving in 1993. Brick paths edge beds planted with box spheres, pink Tulipa ‘Dreamer’ and lime euphorbias.Dean Hearne
Dean Hearne

Before leaving London, she had started a flower business called Garlic and Sapphire with university friend Lou Farman (the now retired co-founder of Sarah Raven). Sarah had noticed that all the London florists were using annuals like ammi and cosmos, so she tracked down seeds and started to grow them herself, experimenting in her own garden to find the best cut-and-come-again varieties. These trials became the basis for both the teaching on her new courses and the seeds that she subsequently sold from her kitchen table. ‘I planted up one-metre-square trial beds and would record how many stems I could pick over a number of weeks. I created a scoring system – anything that got eight or above went in the catalogue.’ Her first seed catalogue included some of her most enduringly popular flowers, like Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity’ and ‘Dazzler’, blue Salvia viridis and Calendula officinalis ‘Indian Prince’.

Before long, the seed catalogue expanded to include tulip bulbs and dahlia tubers. ‘The first dahlia collection was advertised on a little fold-out flyer with 12 varieties,’ Sarah says. ‘One day, the postman came down the drive with a wad of orders. It was a complete disaster – we couldn’t supply them all. Adam and I had to spend two days ringing up people to let them know we’d have to tear up their cheques. In those early days, we did all the fulfilment ourselves. The girls’ school friends would help in the holidays.’

The couple’s sitting room has a relaxed feel, with layered textiles and accessories in earthy tones. A display of dark tulips, including ‘Black Parrot’ and ‘Merlot’, with Fritillaria persica picks up on the rich colours of a portrait of Michel de Montaigne by the couple’s friend Kate Boxer and a painted lampshade from TMO

Dean Hearne

From these humble beginnings, the Sarah Raven brand has blossomed. It is now a multi-million-pound business with its own Lincolnshire nursery and in-house fulfilment company. ‘It’s not always been easy,’ says Sarah. ‘As you get bigger, you are pushed in directions you don’t necessarily want to take. Over the years, I’ve asked people to help with the buying, but it’s so hard for someone else to understand my way of looking at things. I mostly do product selection myself – I can’t sell things I wouldn’t have in my own life.’

A self-confessed workaholic, she finds it hard to switch off. She is always up at 5.30am, giving herself a couple of quiet hours in the garden before her team arrives or, in winter, a period of writing before other things take over. ‘I live and breathe this – it’s my life,’ she says. ‘I have to get away from Perch Hill to relax.’ This might mean escaping to the family’s cottage in Scotland, where they try to spend August each year, or to Crete, where they are building a house. But in her working life there is no sign of any slowing down. She has recently launched a peat-free compost and wants to devote more time to dahlia breeding; there are also plans for a new teaching centre, shop and café in a different part of the country from her Sussex home.

Tulips in the cutting garden.

Dean Hearne

A vase of ‘Apricot Parrot’, ‘Pink Star’ and ‘Ridgedale’ tulips.

Dean Hearne

Whatever direction Sarah takes her business in, she will carry on running courses. ‘I want to be teaching, however old I am,’ she says. Just as she learned from her father, she is happiest passing on her knowledge – inspiring people to set off on their own gardening adventures.

A Year Full of Pots: Container Flowers for All Seasons by Sarah Raven is out 14th March 2024 (Bloomsbury Publishing, Hardback, £27)

Sarah Raven: sarahraven.com