The immediate setting helps, with a weathered stone wall curving easily around the environs of the house and scatterings of old outbuildings beyond. (Image credit: Ngoc Minh Ngo for Country Life)Miss Conran does have a great team under head gardener Anne Roberts, overseen by Kate Gatacre, formerly head grower at Linley Walled Garden in Shropshire, but the vision is all her own. Later in the year, pink Japanese anemones play a similar role in the beds beside the house. (Image credit: Ngoc Minh Ngo for Country Life)Behind a yew hedge and enjoying the deep shade it casts over a rubble-strewn slope (the remains of an old building) is the fern garden. Salthrop Manor, Wiltshire, will host rare plant fairs on May 10 and September 11, 2026 — see www.rareplantfair.co.uk for more details.