This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Wimbledon
Much of Wimbledon’s “British” atmosphere is due to the careful cultivation of the grounds. That includes the pristine 8mm-high rye grass courts and immaculate bedding displays that ornament the walkways, driveways, balconies, bridges, restaurants, private suites and the courts in the club palette of purple, white and green. It’s a Herculean endeavour involving 18 full-time ground staff and another 13 for the season — and 28,000 plants.
Head gardener Martyn Falconer, a Wimbledon veteran of 26 years, is responsible for keeping the gardens fresh and in flower for the two weeks of the Championships. That comparatively long timeframe means that displays are given over to long- and repeat-flowering perennials, including Rosa ‘Iceberg’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’, Verbena bonariensis and Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’, with acers, espaliered hornbeam, and box and ilex topiary providing height, structure and that English country-house feel. Although they look like permanent plantings, most of the bedding plants and trees are secretly housed in plastic pots, which are easier to maintain and allow for denser planting and “wow-y” displays, Falconer says.
I meet Falconer 11 days before the tournament start, and the grounds are in top form — purple and white petunias, an old-fashioned Wimbledon favourite, cascade from hanging baskets; enormous pink hydrangeas tumble over balcony planters; and rambling roses, cut back to time their flowering for the tournament, clamber over arches in the Rose Arbour. Hundreds of plants are still making their way across the grounds in golf carts and on trolleys, but it’s the exceedingly dry spring — the driest in 132 years — that is making Falconer break a sweat.
Conversely, the team that manages the grass courts (there are 18 championship courts and another 20 for practice) say that growing conditions have been pretty good so far this year, and that the run-up to the tournament is all about slowly drying down the turf to ensure ideal hardness readings. Ten days before the tournament, the team will spray a solution of diluted iron to give the colour a final boost, and after the tournament will re-flood and re-feed the grass to restore it. Shoes and racket smashers all pose a challenge — but as with the gardens, it’s the weather that’s the biggest threat.
Here, Falconer answers our — and readers’ — questions about how Wimbledon’s grounds and gardening teams prepare for the big day.
Has it been a challenge to get the grounds in shape given the hot spring and lack of rain?
We’re watering early every morning. And again in the evening if we need to. We just keep everything quite moist with drip-line irrigation and hose over the top if we need to.
What weather do you pray for?
Building up to the Championships, I pray for wet, cooler weather, and during the Championships it can be as sunny as you like.
You became head gardener in 2014. How have the grounds changed under your stewardship?
We’ve given it more of an English-garden feel, with lots of herbaceous perennials, some topiary and fewer bedding plants and annuals. It’s flowery but subtle.
We’re doing what we can to be more sustainable — harvesting rainwater from our new buildings and reducing water usage through our drip-line irrigation system and lots of mulching to make sure the beds can retain that moisture throughout the year. We introduced a wildflower meadow in the back of the practice courts.
Are you encouraged to garden creatively or is there a ‘Wimbledon way’?
The club is good at letting me move with the times of horticulture — you can see our living walls. But we are an English garden, and we follow the Wimbledon colours, so there is only so far we can go. We do in other areas have other colours where it fits. Last year, we planted orangey-yellows where the trophies [were handed out]. We have some reds this year.
How do you keep things looking good for the full tournament?
Day 14 has to look as great as day one. Each person [on the gardening team] has their own area, they’re proud of it — it keeps everyone on their toes. Mainly we’re deadheading, weeding if needed. People do sit on the plants and squash them. We call it “the Wimbledon twist” — if it gets squashed on one side, we can twist it around to get us through the two weeks.
How do you keep the grass courts looking so pristine?
If [like we do] you employ 18 ground staff to look after your grass, it will look pretty good.
When do you begin planning?
We’re thinking about next year now. It’s when we can see where things are not working as we thought, or plants not coming in as we thought [they’d look] from growers. It’s always changing and evolving.
How do you manage sustainability needs with traditional bedding schemes?
Right now we are doing peat-free compost trials in our [petunia] hanging baskets [and other locations]. They and the hydrangeas are the hardest to do without peat; they are so thirsty. So far the success isn’t as good. We’ll do a couple more years of trials to see whether we go completely peat-free and keep trying different plants.
Will the planting need a rethink if the summers heat up more?
In 2008 we had a hosepipe ban way before the Championships, and after that we stopped using so many hydrangeas. We’re introducing more Mediterranean plants. The challenge is to fit them in with the landscape and the climate, because they also have to deal with heavy frosts and cold winters, and most plants from the Mediterranean don’t like a cold winter.
Where do you source your hanging baskets from?
Barnes Nurseries in Surrey. They’ve been doing our baskets for 20 years or so.
What happens to all the plants when the event is over?
We sell them to staff to raise money for charity or donate them.
The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and space.
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