![Jade Holland Cooper in her garden](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385926080_17213961097210_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Jade Holland Cooper on restoring a 230-acre estate: ‘The garden balances out my high-octane life’
The founder of the Princess of Wales’s go-to heritage fashion brand shares the plans she and her husband have for their Cotswolds garden
![Jade Holland Cooper in her garden](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385926080_17213961097210_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Where do you live?
We live in the Cotswolds, a 15-minute drive from Cheltenham. Our house, which is made of Bath stone, was built in the 1830s and sits on a hill. When my husband [Julian Dunkerton, co-owner of Superdry] bought it in 2011, it was derelict, as was the garden. It came with 230 acres, and his dream was to bring it back to its former glory, so he embarked on a five-year restoration project, gutting it from top to bottom. It’s still not entirely finished, but we moved in eight years ago and have since had our two children: three-year-old Saphaïa and one-year-old Jamie.
![Holland Cooper's 19th century Bath stone house](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385926132_17213954751530_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
What is the layout of the garden?
From the front of the house, you see what I call a “tipped landscape”, where the land slopes down, then up again, giving you these beautiful views of rolling hills and woodland, a vast lawn and lakes below. Julian engaged Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt to do the initial landscaping. Then, with the help of our four full-time gardeners, my mother Miranda Holland carried on the work. She’s actually a garden designer and our vision was to surround the house with cosy garden spaces, as well as grander areas for entertaining. Catching my eye right now are the twisted-stem bay trees with fluffy clouds of pink-tinged erigeron surrounding them.
Tell us about the flowers you have at the front of the house
As you come up the drive, there are borders of lavender and nepeta, which we repeat along many of the garden paths that lead from one area or “room” of the garden to the next, creating swathes of blue and purple wherever you go. In the middle is an enormous romantic-style bed of early and late-summer flowers that combine spires of delphiniums, foxgloves, verbena, verbascums, perovskia and salvias, with wispy tall grasses, scabiosa, Californian poppies, martagon lilies and geranium pratense. I wanted to get that orchestral, rhythmic sense of flowers rising, fading, falling and rising again. By the end of July it starts to take on a wilder feel, which I love; I think it complements the formal elegance of the house and the balustrade, which is covered in wisteria.
What was the idea behind your Wedding Walk?
Julian and I got married in 2018 and my wedding bouquet was a cascade of blush-pink roses, jasmine, sweet peas and tuberose. For wedding gifts, we loved the idea of trees, so our guests gifted us lime saplings which we planted in two rows – 150 trees in total. The limes have grown beautifully and we now call it our Wedding Walk. We’ve also got a Laburnum Walk lined with peonies, and David Austin roses are everywhere, from Boscobel and Desdemona to The Generous Gardener and The Lark Ascending. Two of my favourites are the white Rambling Rector and crimson Gertrude Jekyll. In the spring, the grounds are filled with cherry blossom and more than 400,000 bulbs to create huge waves of daffodils and snowdrops. It’s magical.
![Holland Cooper's patio steps lined with purple and blue plants either side](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385925946_17213956533970_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqaHd6X3lW3lGv45Ug3tlONZ3XVdg1rRzimPdm_Jg3Voo.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Do your children spend time in the garden?
Our in-house carpentry team have made the cutest little house, complete with a mini front garden, nasturtium-filled window boxes and baby-blue fencing. Directly opposite is a white chicken house, where our six blue Orpington ladies live, and every day, the children come with me to feed them. My father, who has a keen interest in wildlife, also takes care of the hedgehogs, songbirds and field mice on the estate, which the children love. It’s wonderful to see a garden through their eyes. I know I will treasure moments like these forever.
![Holland Cooper's 'children's garden'](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385925828_17213956825660_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Tell us about your greenhouse
Julian had such a big greenhouse built, we could probably service Tesco. It’s 30 metres long and provides us with enough space to grow nearly every veg and herb you can think of, plus various fruits, including peaches and grapes. Saphaïa always wants to water plants, pick fruit and plant more seeds. The whole estate is organic and supplies food for some of our other businesses, including No 131, our hotel and restaurant in Cheltenham. Water comes from our own spring and all our heating runs off wood pellets. In that respect, I think we’re one of the biggest estates to become fully organic and eco-friendly.
![Holland Cooper's greenhouse that is 30 meters long and is surrounded by flower beds](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385925847_17213955646730_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Did you have a garden as a child?
My parents were arable farmers from Suffolk, growing a variety of crops. Both have a huge love of gardening – as did my grandparents – and ended up turning 14 acres of ploughed fields into a beautiful garden. I was lucky to grow up with it all. I’ve got two stepbrothers, but they are much older, so I was really an only child. I was also quite shy and spent most of my time outside, either riding or in the garden. Mum would take me with her on endless visits to nurseries and I can often remember saying: “How can we possibly need any more flowers?” So, I got the gardening bug from her. I think we also share the same workaholic nature: once our minds are set on something, we not only have to achieve it, we have to operate at full speed.
Does the garden influence the running of your fashion business?
I love the countryside, it’s a massive influence on me, and it’s where I’m most at home, whether I’m out deadheading roses or walking across muddy fields. From day one, it also informed the vision I had for Holland Cooper, the clothes label I set up 15 years ago. Now, the company has become a country lifestyle brand and we’re taking one of the biggest stands at this year’s Game Fair, which always provides me with an opportunity to connect with like-minded people: gardeners, farmers, landowners – some passionate about their horses, others mad about their dogs.
![Picture shows rear of Holland Cooper's Gloucestershire home](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385925792_17213959390560_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Do you have future plans for the garden?
Julian loves fishing, in fact he loves water full stop and right beside the house are two lily ponds which, among other things, are filled with beds of elegant white alliums. One of the first projects he undertook was to build a huge outdoor swimming pool that has a warm Mediterranean feel to it, with olive, lemon and fig all around.
Our next big project is the creation of a formal Italian garden that will lead down from the top terraces to the lakes. The funny thing is, Julian originally owned the house next door, which has 10 acres and is now where my mum and dad live. From that house, he could see the lakes and it was partly because of them that he bought this house. It will have come full circle to see this all come together.
![Picture shows the garden's L-shaped swimming pool surrounded by green plants](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385925825_17213955221840_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqMTHot3npgdo0TkoF-nXvdCccsKCoWo_3OKYZGhqEkAM.jpeg?imwidth=350)
With such a large business to run, does the garden help you stay sane?
I have a busy working schedule: I am a mum, wife, run a big house and co-own multiple businesses. There are often only small windows of time where I can stop and think outside all of that, and the garden is my escape. It also has a calming effect on me, it balances out the high pressure, the high stress, the high-octane environment that I’m in 24/7. I also find cutting flowers to bring into the house very cathartic, very therapeutic. Once I’ve put the kids to bed, I love to walk around touching and smelling them, just having those moments to myself. I know some flowers won’t last for long, but that connection, however fleeting, is precious. Yes, the flowers die, but they will come again and again and again.
![Picture shows the garden's sitting area under a cabana covered in plants](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/gardening/2024/07/19/TELEMMGLPICT000385925838_17213958215300_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Holland Cooper will have a stand at The Game Fair at Blenheim Palace from July 26 to 28; visit thegamefair.org for more details