Borde Hill Storm Damage

Restoration of storm damaged landscape at Borde Hill Garden, near Haywards Heath in the West Sussex Weald. It was acquired by Colonel Stephenson Clarke in 1893 and he was largely responsible for creating the garden that exists today. He was keen to seek out new specimens and between 1912 and 1930 he sponsored various plant-collecting expeditions during which time he received plants from Asia from the expeditions of George Forrest and Francis Kingdom Ward. Borde Hill is one of the four private gardens whose trees are recorded on the Kew database. There are only 35 species of tree native to the British Isles and over 540 species have been counted at Borde Hill. In the 1987 storm, 220 trees recorded in the 'Woody Catalogue Scheme' were uprooted or severely damaged. Among the losses was a Picea brachytyla the only specimen in cultivation anywhere.