Country Gardens is a traditional English folk melody and a popular Morris Dance tune. It was first published in 1728. Cecil Sharp collected it and passed it on to Percy Grainger. Grainger then arranged it for piano in 1918. It became one of Grainger’s best-known works and brought him great success.

The song was given the title English Country Garden by Jimmie Rodgers, who sung it in 1962 with the lyrics shown below:

“How many kinds of sweet flowers grow in an English country garden?
We’ll tell you now of some that we know; those we miss you’ll surely pardon
Daffodils, heart’s ease and flox, meadowsweet and lady smocks
Gentain, lupine and tall hollyhocks,
Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, blue forget-me-nots
In an English country garden”

There are alternative, less flowery, words too. As children in England, Carla and her friends used to sing:

“What do you do if you can’t find a loo, in an English country garden?
Pull down your pants and exterminate the ants, in an English country garden”

We had fun playing through this new arrangement for 12 handbells. Our thanks go to J.C. for helping us out during his short visit to Michigan. The video was only our third attempt at the piece, and we hadn’t quite mastered the middle section. However, with a bit more rehearsal time, this piece shouldn’t be too challenging.

Would you like to play Country Gardens?

If you’d like to play Country Gardens, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.

If you haven’t bought music from us before, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement and our step-by-step guide.

Do you have questions?

If you have any questions, check out the Frequently-Asked Questions first. If you don’t find the answers you seek, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help!

Thanks to everyone who’s bought music from us in recent months. We hope you’ll enjoy this piece!