Tidying the 300-year-old, 40ft-tall, 150ft-wide hedge is a two-man job that takes 12 days.
The clippings – this year amounting to nearly a ton – are used to produce a life-saving cancer drug called taxol.
You can visit and see for yourself – the public are welcome every day of the year at the estate and entry is free.
There are even holiday cottages on the property if you fancy a longer stay. And if you book a week in early September, chances are you'll see the hedge-cutting for yourself.
Why you should trim your hedge this weekend
Is now the time for a short back and sides?
Hedgelaying: getting started
We tell you how to get started in the fascinating art of hedgelaying
How to plant a hedge
Alan Titchmarsh talks about the wonders of hedges.
Top tips for topiary
Topiary lifts seasonal gloom and gives the garden a clean, solid framework.
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Six of the best Clematis montanas that every garden needsClematis montana is easy to grow and look after, and is considered by some to be 'the most graceful and floriferous of all'.
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The man who trekked Bhutan, Mongolia, Japan, Tasmania and New Zealand to bring the world's greatest magnolias back to KentMagnolias don't get any more magnificent than the examples in the garden at White House Farm in Kent, home of Maurice Foster. Many of them were collected as seed in the wild — and they are only one aspect of his enthralling garden.
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The 'breathtakingly magnificent' English country gardens laid out on the Amalfi Coast, and the story of how they got thereKirsty Fergusson follows the Grand Tour to Campania in Italy, where the English combined their knowledge and love of plants with the rugged landscape to create gardens of extraordinary beauty.
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Have your say in the Historic Houses Garden of the Year Awards 2025 -
Evenley Wood Garden: 'I didn't know a daffodil from a daisy! But being middle-aged, ignorant and obstinate, I persisted'When Nicola Taylor took on her plantsman father’s flower-filled woodland, she knew more about horses than trees, but, as Tiffany Daneff discovers, that hasn’t stopped her from making a great success of the garden. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
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An expert guide to growing plants from seedAll you need to grow your own plants from seed is a pot, some compost, water and a sheltered place.
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The best rhododendron and azalea gardens in BritainIt's the time of year when rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and many more spring favourites are starting to light up the gardens of the nation. Here are the best places to go to enjoy them at their finest.
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Great Comp: The blissful garden flooded with rhododendrons and azaleas that's just beyond the M25Each spring, Great Comp Garden — just outside the M25, near Sevenoaks — erupts into bloom, with swathes of magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons. Charles Quest-Ritson looks at what has become one of the finest gardens to visit in Kent.
