Alan Dallman, top Muswell Hill gardener, dies at age of 87

Whether it was through his garden in Wood Vale, which was open for the National Gardens Scheme and the Red Cross for more than 30 years, as a multiple prizewinner at the Highgate Horticultural Society flower shows, or in his capacity as Chairman of the Society for many years, no-one could miss that here was a complete devotee of flowers and gardens.

Anne Dallman, his wife, was right there enabling everything to happen, not least in her capacity as treasurer to the Society.

Alan Dallman with wife Anne in their garden in Muswell Hill. Alan died on June 20 at the age of 87. (Image: Nigel Sutton) Alan’s love of gardening started early. As a five-year-old he was tending his own plot in his father’s garden, and he began his annual visit to the Chelsea Flower Show at the age of 14.

By London standards, the garden at Wood Vale was huge – in fact the couple bought the house because of the three quarter acre plot.

Level at the front, it sloped down at the back towards the playing fields, then took a turn to the right, where a big and rather wet section led towards the footpath to the fields.

Sounds of cricket and tennis reached through the trees at the bottom, adding to the sense that the visitor was not only on an adventure but somehow straying into the genteel era that John Betjeman loved to celebrate.

Labour-saving was never Alan’s style. There were lawns, a fish pond, plenty of hanging baskets, flowering plants and shrubs of all sorts, wigwams of sweet peas, lights, sitting places, climbers, hedges, fruit trees, a pergola, greenhouses, vegetables, a big weeping willow, a topiary dog.

In 2013, the London Gardens Society awarded them best large garden in London and the couple received a visit from Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex and a society patron.

“I don’t like a set garden,” Mr Dallman once told the Ham&High. “I like a garden looking the way that nature meant it to be.

He added: “I suppose if you put gardening down as a hobby, you generally put all you can into it, don’t you? That’s what I do.

“It’s about having an interest in seeing things grow and in nature.”

No wonder, as time went by, that it began to get too much, but even so Alan kept going. In 2022, when he and Anne did decide to move to be with their daughter and son-in-law, Alison and Steve, it was a wrench, but did not mean the end of his interest in plants or the Highgate Horticultural Society.

With his passing, we have to say goodbye to a truly inspirational gardener.