Guest Blog: My Haddonstone Adventure – The Story Of A Danish Show Garden

Tina Thorsby fell in love with quintessential English gardens at an early age.  With a lifelong passion for gardening, Tina was inspired to create her own beautiful Show Garden in her native Denmark.

A chance encounter with some of Haddonstone’s beautiful traditional designs led Tina to start her own garden decor business, Havens Kunst,, which is now Haddonstone’s sole Danish distributor.

In this week’s guest blog, Tina describes her passion for gardening and the story of creating her very special Show Garden.

The background to becoming a Haddonstone distributor

Havens Kunst (Garden Art) is the distributor for Haddonstone in Denmark.  Being a child of a mother and father who were both gardening enthusiasts, I had to have a garden myself.  I have been crazy about gardening, and especially English gardens, since my own garden life started in 1995.

My Haddonstone adventure started in 2016, when I saw the wonderful Haddonstone ornaments in Danish garden guru Claus Dalby´s garden in Aarhus, Denmark.  I had earlier on purchased urns at auctions, but they were not the high quality that I wanted.

I immediately fell in love with the quality and sharpness of Haddonstone’s various decorations, rims and busts.  I had to own a couple of items myself!  It was very difficult to choose, but I ended up with the Bust of Pan and the Trafalgar Urn.

Our Haddonstone Show Garden

In 2018, we decided to move in order to be able to increase our inventory and at the same time create our very own Show Garden from scratch.  In spring 2019, we found the perfect spot.

We sold our house in the outskirts of Copenhagen and moved south of Zealand. The garden was almost none existent: only grass, old trees and dandelions.

In 2020, we started the work on the garden in order to transform it to the perfect Show Garden.

The four elements statue garden

The first area we worked on was the Four Elements garden.

I got so interested in the Four Elements when I saw them.  Those putti were so adorable and gave meaning to any garden enthusiast.  We are dependent on the elements: Water, Earth, Air and Fire.

Also, being a romantic soul that adores Jane Austen’s book ‘Pride and Prejudice’, I felt that it was a must to have the Four Elements!

You will find the Four Elements in the Holland garden at the National Trust’s Lyme Hall.  Lyme Hall was the manor of Mr. Darcy in the famous BBC TV series of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in 1995.

Water Feature: Pool and Fountain

This year, we have been working on a pool area.  We chose the classic kerb and made a square 15m2 pool.

For the fountain, we chose the Large Dolphin Fountain.  As the Dolphin is a replicate from early sixteenth century, it does not look like dolphins today.  When it was made back in sixteenth century, the artists probably had not seen a Dolphin in real life.

It also bears a striking resemblance to a fish you in early Chinese decorations.  It suited the area quite well as we had placed a Chinese red bench at the end of the pool.  In the surrounding beds, we have Asian origin flowers like Azaleas, Peonies and Lilies.

Balustrading and Pergola

Our last and final projects are a Pergola in our kitchen garden area and Balustrading around our terraces.

Then we just need all the plants to grow, so that it looks like this garden has been here for years.

Planning A Trip To Denmark?  Why Not Visit Tina’s Show Garden?

Tina’s beautiful Show Garden is open for visitors every Saturday and Sunday between 10:00am and 14:00pm.  To visit outside of these times, please contact Tina directly to make arrangements.

Havens Kunst
Gødstrup Bygade 2
4684 Holmegaard

Telephone: +45 4215 5945

Visit: Havens Kunst