Sir Reresby and Lady Sitwell's remarkable restoration of the garden has enhanced the geometric design, retaining yew hedges, pyramids and antique statues, whilst adding ebullient (and ever widening) mixed borders, rose and clematis gardens and a host of exotic plants, many rarely hardy in this part of the country. On either side of the formal gardens are more naturalistic plantings with specimen trees, unusual shrubs and towering rambling roses.
The formal garden was laid out in 1895 by Sir George Sitwell (1860-1943) in the classical Italianate style.
In 1909 he published On the Making of Gardens which attacks Augustan formalism in garden design and the romantic landscape. It has been described as "an argument for imaginative thought in garden planning"
. He was ambitious in the changes he made and planned to make around the estate. His eldest son Osbert looked on his energetic activities with something of a jaundiced eye:
"He abolished small hills, created lakes, and particularly liked to alter the levels at which full grown trees were standing. Two old yew trees in front of the dining-room window at Renishaw were regularly heightened and lowered; a process which I believe could have been shown to chart, like a thermometer, the temperature of his mood."
To the east of the garden, holly and camellia avenues lead to paths through mature woodland, down to the lakes originally excavated to enhance the view from the house and now managed for wildlife. They are an important nesting and resting site for resident and migrating birds.
The garden at Renishaw is populated with a large and beautiful collection of statues started by Sir George Sitwell and added to by his son Sir Osbert and the current owners, Sir Reresby and Lady Sitwell. See more...
Renishaw's garden is not only classical. There is also a new Children's Gardens with trails for all ages: an art and literature trail following the famous people who have been connected with the Hall and the family, a tree trail, and a trail for the little ones with silhouettes of characters from children's stories.
There is also a maze, carvings in the trees, a story teller's chair hewn out of a massive tree trunk knocked down in the Great Storm and a living willow tunnel.
Visitors should collect leaflets for the trails from the kiosk and on their way out check if they answered the questions correctly.
Young and old can get lost for hours and have a magical time.
In 1999 the orangery was restored and was chosen to house The National Collection of Yuccas. Here are most species of the Yucca genus that originate in the western United States, plants that thrive in a hot arid atmosphere.