Gardens: The glasshouses of Rossdhu on the shores of Loch Lomond

An 18th-century garden is restored, making the banks of Loch Lomond even bonnier

The glasshouses' interior hosts an array of beautiful flora. Picture:

When asked in what condition the impeccable, glasshouses at Rossdhu, on the shores of Loch Lomond, were before their 2007 restoration, senior gardener Jackie Theaker responds with a sad photograph.

Stacked up against the side of the south-facing wall of the 2-acre walled garden are the miserable remains of a Victorian structure. A tree has pushed its way through the roof, shattering glass in all directions and the skeletal wooden frame is smothered by creepers.

Any trace of paint has long since disappeared and only the tall, triangular shape of the central gabled entrance indicates that this was once a productive set of glasshouses.

Jackie, who has worked here since 2006 explains: “A boiler provided heating outside the wall. There were old fig and grapevines still in existence, but the structure was in a sad, broken state.”

The restoration project was the vision of the Loch Lomond Golf Club, which in 1994 was granted a long lease on the property by the late Sir Ivar Colquhoun, father of the present Laird Sir Malcolm Colquhoun of Luss. For Sir Ivar it would have been hard to imagine the extent of the care his tenants would lavish on the policies and the walled garden.

Sir Malcolm explains: “My very earliest memories as a child at Rossdhu are of its astonishing walled garden and of the gardener Mr McLetchie whose principal occupation was shovelling enormous quantities of coal into a vast, antiquated cast-iron boiler which served the 10,000sq ft Victorian glasshouses.”

The estate, including the walled garden, was designed in 1797 by Thomas White, the renowned 18th-century landscape designer, who trained under Capability Brown. But in the 20th century limited funds meant the once magnificent walled garden was abandoned. Meanwhile, the trees, some of which were planted by White, grew to form a striking backdrop to the loch and surrounding policies.

Landscape architect Fiona Robertson was commissioned to restore the layout in the walled garden as a whole, which she did reproducing as far as possible White’s original, symmetrical layout. This resulted in a simple, traditional design based on the cruciform style of central paths complemented by a perimeter path to frame the generous borders that line the walls. Edged with low box hedging and punctuated with box pyramids, the paths, laid with soft grey gravel, are wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

The new glasshouse, built by contractors under the supervision of the golf club managers, boasts five separate sections. The aim was to provide an elegant, comfortable central sitting area furnished with benches for relaxing and entertaining, and a series of different spaces for the production of vegetables and soft fruit, with areas devoted to a striking collection of semi-tropical plants.

“We grow fresh salads, as well as early strawberries, grapes, figs, lemons and even bananas for the restaurants up at Rossdhu House,” Jackie enthuses. “At one end is a room dedicated to propagation with a potting bench, heated propagator and all the pots, seed trays and compost. All the necessary re-potting, seed sowing and cuttings are prepared here. Young flower and vegetable plants can then be moved out into the cold frames for hardening off before being planted out in the garden”.

Research into the historical background of the garden has allowed today’s growers the opportunity of choosing plants likely to have been grown in the original glasshouses in the early 1800s. These include collections of orchids and Primula auricula as well as the prolific grapevine Vitis vinfera “Black Hamburg” – first planted by Capability Brown at Hampton Court Palace – nectarines, fig trees and pineapples.

Jackie, a lifelong gardener, studied for the RHS Level Two Certificate in Horticulture by distance learning, after she decided that her passion for gardening was all consuming and that she would need to have a career change.

She gained practical experience tending private gardens in Helensburgh, and came to Rossdhu because she “couldn’t resist the chance to work in this historic garden”. The glasshouses with their varied spaces have proved the ultimate challenge. “A selection of carnivorous plants including a Venus flytrap and pitcher plants appeal to visitors; the rather wacky African horned cucumbers are generally met with some amazement. In fact they are quite tasty too.”

The warm conservatory is planted with a tropical feel presided over by tall yuccas, large-leaved bananas, Ensete ventricosum “Maurelii” together with the bright flowers of Canna “Triomphe”, scarlet pelargoniums and the dramatic bird of paradise Strelitzia reginae. A particular favourite is Abutilon x hybridum “Orange Dwarf”, with orange, bell-shaped flowers every month of the year.

The strong light levels in conservatories produce challenging growing conditions and some plants struggle to cope with direct light and heat. In summer blinds are lowered in the orchid section, while the evocative parlour palm, Chamaedorea elegans, and the variegated green, purple and wine-red foliage of Begonia rex are happier tucked in the shade of other plants. The collection of purple and deep-pink Streptocarpus cope with the bright conditions providing their leaves are kept dry on a bright day. “When watered from beneath, they will keep looking good.”

Another recent acquisition is show-stopping Medinilla magnifica which produces dramatic sprays of tumbling Barbie-pink flowers for most of the year. “It is displayed up on a pedestal so that it can be best admired and the flowers can hang down without getting caught by the hose when we are watering.”

• The Walled Garden and the Glasshouses at Rossdhu House, Luss, by Alexandria are not open to the general public, but if anyone wanted to see them they could contact the Loch Lomond Golf Club.