The newly planted Plat Borders and Grey Walk, view from the southeast corner of the Hestercombe Formal Garden, 1906. Photo by Ivo Richard Vesey (1881-1958), 5th Viscount de Vesci.

By December of 1904, Albert Hubbard’s foreman, Mr. Cook, had received plant material for the North Plat Wall & Border of the Formal Garden from Gertrude Jekyll. The following spring Hubbard received a letter from Jekyll, indicating which plants – mainly shrubs -- she could not supply from her Munstead Wood Nursery for the new Formal Garden, forcing the Head Gardener to canvass various nurseries for some 30 shrubs and perennials.