Six on Saturday: Oxford Botanic Garden

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Agave, container planting, garden visit, Oxford Botanic Garden, Pavonia, Saturday smile, six on saturday

Hello, my Six on Saturday this week are from a garden visit to the Oxford Botanic Garden on January 20th. The gardens are the oldest in the UK ( founded in 1621) with nearly 6,000 types of plants.

What strikes you about this first picture? The enviable dark brown soil or the vivid green grass? Or what about the bright blue sky, it was January after all. Then there is the obelisk, look at its height. All quite remarkable but what really struck me was the incredibly straight edges to the borders, so very crisp and smart.

2. The straight edges are a strong feature of this part of the gardens, dictated perhaps by the garden wall. It may appear as if there is little to see in January and clearly it does looks rather bare, where are those 6,000 plants I hear you thinking, yet I really enjoyed seeing the crisp form of the space.

3. On closer inspection there are things happening in the borders. Witch Hazels, Willow, salix and Rainbow Chard. There are also these willow structures shaped as apples here.

There were masses of snowdrops but I am no Galanthophile hence my next pictures are of the container planting.

4.

The combination of ferns and primula with Skimmia is lovely for Winter container planting. I especially liked the addition of birch which adds height, colour and catkins.

5. In the glasshouses the relief from the cold was very welcome and necessary for this exquisite beauty

Pavonia. Simply stunning.

6. I love cacti’s and succulents and always enjoy seeing the Agave.

This one is a beautiful specimen.

That’s it, my Six on Saturday about my garden visit to the immaculate Oxford Botanic Garden.

The propagator blog is our host for Six on Saturday. If you would like to join in please be sure to include a link to his blog. If you find yourself near Oxford I recommend a visit to the botanical gardens, an historical and beautiful space to walk around.

Have a good weekend. D.

In a Vase on Monday: tulip mania

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garden visit, Holland, in a vase on Monday, Keukenhof, the Netherlands, tulip Angelique, tulip Antraciet, Tulip Ballerina, tulip Brown Sugar, tulip La Belle Epoque, tulip Spring green, tulips

I fear I am having my own tulip mania thanks to my trip to Keukenhof last week.

It was my first visit and I was completely blown away by the beauty of the bulbs. The weather was warm which let’s face it, always helps.

Against a blue sky, the bulbs were beneath trees in full blossom which created a perfect haze of pink or in this case white. The warm air carried the heady scent of hyacinths which were planted in thousands.

I think I was expecting regimented rows of bulbs in blocks or bands of colour.

This was the case in some places but elsewhere the bulbs were planted in glorious colour combinations mixed with muscari or hyacinth or anemones.

Keukenhof plants about 7 million bulbs every year, admired by some 1.5million visitors, over the eight weeks that it is open. Mind blowing figures. Certainly it is a busy place to visit but its 32 hectare site copes well.

The bulbs are planted in nets as the soil is heavy clay and these are all lifted at the end of the show.

The lifted bulbs are sorted, the larger ones are kept for another year, the rest are disposed of. Mature trees cast shade once in leaf and the grass is reseeded each year for the show. The work that goes into this show is remarkable.

So this brings me to my vase. Tulips, a handful of tulips. They are pretty good in my garden this year.

I picked a selection to take to a friend.

Tulip Spring Green, Tulip Angelique, Tulip Ballerina, Tulip a La Belle Epoque, Tulip Brown Sugar, Tulip Antraciet

Joining Cathy with in a Vase on Monday. Should you like to join in add a link back to cathy’s blog and join in this popular Monday meme.

Have a great week. D.

Garden visit: Cambridge University Botanic Garden

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Acer grisium, Bergenia Bressingham Ruby, Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Cornus alba sibirica, Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire', garden visit, Helleborus foetidus, Rubus cockburnianus, stinking hellebore, weather report, white stemmed bramble, Winter garden

In the depths of Winter it can be hard to stay enthused about the garden yet if you know where to look there are some stunning examples of a Winter garden. One such place in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and yesterday was the day I went to see for myself. I was not disappointed.

Winter Garden

First the factual bits for those who like to know these things: the garden opened in 1846 and has been a focus and stimulus for science and research in the University. The gardens comprise forty acres of gardens and glasshouses which hold Grade II* heritage landscape. It was the vision of John Stevens Henslow who was a professor of botany at the University and mentor to Charles Darwin no less. Henslow’s new, perhaps ground breaking idea, was that the Botanic Garden should be for the experimental study of the plants rather than just a physic garden for the medical students. Today the garden holds over 8,000 plant species.

I did not see any where near 8,000 plants but those that I did see were very beautiful, just look at the Acer Grisium in the picture above, surrounded by the stunning bank of Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’

Acer grisium

The Dogwoods were in good colour and I liked the use of the smaller leaf Bergenia Bressingham Ruby as ground cover, such a good form.

Cornus alba sibirica with Hellebore

Bergenia Bressingham Ruby

If you really only like white in the garden and find all the colour rather vulgar, the next combination is rather spectacular:White stemmed bramble underplanted with snowdrops

Rubus Goldenvale

A vicious plant with long whippy thorny growth which needs an annual prune to encourage the new white stems for next year, gauntlets and chaps recommended.

After looking at the Winter garden on such a cold day it was necessary to warm up in the cafe. The food is very good and reasonably priced with a great selection of vegetarian dishes.

Stylish cafe area, note the trained Lime trees

Trailing hellebore, corten steel

A couple of things that I brought away from the visit is the idea of using Hellebore foetidus as a trailing plant and the cacti and succulents in the glass houses.  I will share those another time.

Anyway, if the weather is getting you down, don’t let it.  Grab your coat and hat and get out there to see some something beautiful,

Maximum? no reading.

whatever the weather.

Enjoy your weekend.

 

Garden visit: Turn End, Buckinghamshire

Tags

Brunnera macrophylla, Crown Imperial fritillaria, grade II*, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, Lily flowered tulips, Lunaria annua var.albiflora, Monica Young potter, NGS, Peter Aldington, RIBA, spring bulbs, Turn End, white Honesty

Entrance to Turn End

Designed and built by architect Peter Aldington in the 1960s Turn End is one of three houses which hold an RIBA Award for Architecture (1970) and Grade II* listing; there are only twelve post-war houses so designated.  I however went to visit the garden which was open under the NGS yellow book scheme on the last bank holiday Monday.  Disappointingly the weather was typically bank-holiday wet but the garden was no less beautiful and perhaps enabled me to see it without the usual crowds.

crowd free viewing

The garden is a series of places, full sun, white washed walls, gravel with pans of houseleeks, armillary sphere and an arbour covered in climbers. Not looking so ‘hot’ in the wet weather I photgraphed the other areas of the garden most suited to the grey damp day.

wonderful use of lily flowered tulips

Many areas of the garden looked wonderful thanks to widespread use of Spring bulbs, in particular tulips and Crown Imperial Fritillarias.

Crown Imperial Frittallias

Bulbs with the less seen white form of Lunaria annua or ‘Honesty’

yellow crown imperial fritillarias and yellow tulips

Blues and yellows ran around the garden thanks to Bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, Forget-me-nots, and Brunnera macrophylla. Tulips and Crown Imperial Fritillaria are used to inject the yellows.

Drawing you through the doorway to the knot garden, note yellow tulips and wall of not yet open blue Ceanothus thyrsiflorus

There is an impressive collection of pots in the garden and they demonstrate lots of ideas of how to place them successfully.

a grey day at Turn End

Trillium picking up the clay tones in the enormous pot

Pot by Monica Young

This particular beauty was made by the late Monica Young.  It brings to mind the unfurling of a hosta perhaps? The simplicity of the backdrop, wall covered in dark green ivy, appropriately does not compete with the beauty of the pot.

I really enjoyed the garden and intend to revisit later this year to see it in a different season.  I was so impressed by the use of bulbs and the thread of colour repeated around the garden.   The pots, well they were each a thing of beauty and their leafy surroundings were enchanting.

 

 

Turn End features at the Royal Scottish Academy’s Annual Exhibition

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Edinburgh, NGS, Peter Aldington, Richard Murphy, Royal Scottish Academy's Annual Exhibition, Turn End

I admire certain buildings and have a strong interest in architecture as well as just plants and gardens.  When an interesting building also has a beautiful garden, what could be better? Turn End in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire falls into this category for me.

For any readers north of the border or for anyone planning a trip up to  Edinburgh I suggest this may be worth a look.  For everyone else I suggest a visit to Haddenham, check the Turn End website for opening details; the garden is open on Monday 2 May 2pm to 5.30pm under the National Garden Scheme.

 

Turn End Trust’s patron, architect Richard Murphy, has invited Peter Aldington to exhibit alongside him at the Royal Scottish Academy’s Annual Exhibition in Edinburgh. The RSA Annual Exhibition showcases work from RSA Academicians the length and breadth of Scotland. Now in its 190th year, exhibits contemporary painting, sculpture, film, printmaking, photography, installation and architecture. The convenor […]

via Turn End features at Royal Scottish Academy’s Annual Exhibition — Turn End

Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden

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Barbara Hepworth museum and Sculpture Garden, Barbara Hepworth sculpture, garden visit, St Ives

 

This Summer we took a short trip to Cornwall, well I use the term ‘short trip’ loosely as I do not feel six hours in the car can ever be described as short.  Having travelled so far west I had to make the extra hour to get to St Ives to visit the Barbara Hepworth museum and Sculpture Garden.

The day we visited was one of those warm English Summer days, rare and therefore all the more memorable. Everything, even the grottiest of tourist traps can look fabulous in the sunshine.  St Ives, which is not in anyway shabby, was heaving with day trippers and holiday makers, even Dorris the younger declared that the streets were as busy as Oxford street.  Certainly the crowds were rather off putting.  By contrast entrance to the Barbara Hepworth museum and sculpture garden was a haven from the busy streets.

The mature beautifully formed garden is 0.2 acres on a sloping site with a sub tropical feel thanks to planting of bamboo, cordyline, phormium and chusan palms. There were other visitors yet it was not crowded. The exhibits were stunning in the stupendous light that St Ives offers; little wonder that it was such a place of inspiration for so many artists.
As background  Barbara Hepworth was a British abstract artist working on large scale bronze and stone pieces.  Married to the artist Ben Nicholson they moved their young family to Cornwall at the outbreak of World War II.  The museum is the studio and garden where she lived and worked from 1949 until her death in 1975 when a fire gutted her studio.  The museum opened in 1976 in accordance with her wishes and is now run by Tate.

I do not propose to attempt to write about Hepworth or her art in any factual or educated way as there are plenty of articles available. Instead I shall share the photographs I took which capture the forms which struck me as especially beautiful.

 

Agapanthus, sunshine and smooth verdigris bronze.

I especially like the way the rainwater collects in the basin of the piece creating beautiful reflections of the light.  One of the museum attendants told me that it is not unusual to see small birds taking a wash in the water.  Some birdbath.
The port holes are crisp windows framing detail of the scene beyond.

By contrast this earlier piece seems to reflect the shape and form of leaves.
The statuesque scale of the piece below is so, well handsome, of the tall dark variety.

The precise dark rectangular shape contrasts and somehow displays the lime of the plant in the foreground whilst its form sets off the structure of the Yucca by drawing the eye upwards.

The collection is very beautiful and notwithstanding what it shows about Hepworth and her work, to me it shows how structure and ornament can enhance a garden and outside space.  The strong dark forms contrast with the foliage in not just colour but texture as well.  The verdigris bronze blends with the verdent surroundings and the pale stone forms offer not just a stature but a surface on which the light can reflect shadow.  How wonderful are these:

shadows

Adding depth to the border

Sunlight on marble work in the studio, complete with Hepworths collection of cacti and succulents.

Looking back at my August visit, the light looks even better than I remember.  The abstract, motionless forms are tactile, statuesque, handsome; they add a depth to the garden and demonstrate the skill of the artist.  I have no idea how a woman of such a slight frame could begin to form these huge sculptures from marble or bronze. Wonderful.

If you are planning a trip to Cornwall may I suggest that you include a visit to St Ives to see for yourself.

 

 

 

Great Dixter, so good, I visited twice.

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Christopher Lloyd, Frances Lincoln Ltd., Geoprge Plumptre, Great Dixter, The English Country House Garden

Great Dixter

If you only get to visit one English garden, I would recommend Great Dixter near Rye, East Sussex. In the lovely book ‘The English Country House Garden’ by George Plumptre, Frances Lincoln Ltd, Dixter is classed as one of the three essentials, along with Hidcote and Sissinghurst. All three are no doubt prime English country gardens yet Dixter is edgier, experimental and remains a constantly evolving garden, hence it is my favourite.

Great Dixter

The house which dates back to the 15th century, was updated by Sir Edward Lutyens in the early 1900’s when the framework of the garden was set around the medieval manor, barns and oasthouse by a series of yew walls by Lutyens and Lloyds parents.

Christopher Lloyd known as Christo, trained in horticulture after service in the second world war. He lectured at Wye college in Kent, publishing his first book in 1957. He returned to Dixter in his early thirties to live with his widowed mother and used the garden at Dixter as a source of inspiration, trialing and experimenting with plants for his weekly column in Country Life.  Christo published numerous books throughout his life including The Mixed Border and Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners.

Christo may have been ‘posh’ and opinionated but he was immensely knowledgable, writing in a fresh entertaining style.  He took the bones of the garden at Dixter and transformed it with his own distinctive, almost rock’n’roll style.

Gardens, really? Can they be different, can they ever be cutting edge? (no pun)

Certainly the framework of Dixter is quintessentially English: ancient buildings, walls of hedges, topiary, stone paths etc yet the planting is different; looser, bigger, bolder with clashing colour and texture.

Topiary

stone paths and yew walls

 

Autumn colours including pink, orange, blue and yellow

Big and Bold

The exclusive use of soft complimentary colours to sooth and recede lost their place to striking hots. Lloyd was never afraid to challenge the eye and used yellows and reds in his planting schemes, not in some intentional hot border, but amongst the planting, everywhere. Brash? So it may have seemed but this was ground breaking and has gone on to become almost the fashion for modern planting schemes.

Hot pokers

The Exotic garden replaced the Rose Garden and outraged the traditionalists of the time.

Exotics

The curved stone steps created by Lutyens are now home to the unlikely mix of succulents, cacti and Erigeron.

cacti and succulents

cacti and succulents

colour mixing 1

colour mixing 2

colour mixing 3

 

The meadow

The meadow which greets the visitor on arrival may now not be that unusual yet it has inspired countless copies to encourage the return of insects into our gardens.

 

If you are still reading at this point, thank you, I shall finish off, silently, with some more pictures.

colour at Dixter

Colour at Dixter

steps with erigeron and valerian

colour at Dixter

Texture /contrast

Autumn light at Dixter

Wordless : Minimalism, Arrangement by Barbara Hepworth

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Aeonium with stone, barbara hepworth, Barbara Hepworth museum St Ives, St Ives

Been busy, looking.

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Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Chelsea Flower Show 15, Chris Beardshaw, Emma Bridgewater, James Basson, L'Occitane Garden, Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden, Perch Hill, Rosa Albertine, Ruth Willmott, sarah Raven, Stipa gigantea, Winslow in Bloom

I may not have been able to do as much gardening as I would like in recent months but I have been busy on the garden front in other ways.  I have been to look at other gardens.  I had planned to write about all of  them in detail and yet the time got away from me, so here I am, finally putting finger tip to key (the modern day version of ‘pen-to-paper’).

In May there was the joy that is Chelsea Flower Show.  This years visit was on a cool grey afternoon yet the planting was far from grey, as to be expected it was a visual feast with joyful colour combinations everywhere you looked, including some of the visitors. There were lots of the usual purples and blue tones but this year more of these seemed to be interrupted by a splash of orange.  In the grey light of the day in question you can see how good this combination is, even with lower light levels.

Great Lupins at Chris Beardshaw’s garden for Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden

White is also good at lifting itself and shining out against our pale grey skies.  The trunk of the Birches stride out against the dark green backdrop of Yew and accents the rather dreamy looks of the softest pink Astrantias and Japanese anemones.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer garden by Ruth Willmott .  A delightful planting combination although I am not sure the hand is a good addition.

For pure escapism I was rather taken by the beauty of these olive trees; it brought to mind holidays in the Mediterranean.  This might work in a sheltered urban garden but alas not in my exposed rural situation.

Olives and a glass of something chilled please. As seen at L’Occitane Garden by James Basson

In June I visited Winslow in Bloom which comprised a number of gardens open in the Town.  It is always interesting to see what has been done in other peoples gardens and they each had at least one plant or idea to take away.  A couple of the gardens stood out as being quintessentially English and I thought you might to take a look.

The rose around this cottage, filling the air with its scent, is Rosa Albertine, stunning.

Another garden in the Town with a wonderful back drop for meal times.

This is a walled garden of considerable size.  I especially liked the area of long grass with wildflowers against the freshly cut grass and the herringbone brick path, a pleasing mix of surfaces.  I am sorry that I did not note what the tree is as looking back now I can see it is particularly attractive in this setting.

Sun loving Phlomis fruticosa alongside the wall which is put to good use with climbers.

Later in the month I took a couple of days in East Sussex to visit Perch Hill and Great Dixter.

Perch Hill is the garden and cookery school of Sarah Raven.  For those who are not familiar with Sarah Raven, she has an inspirational mail order company for seeds and bulbs, and other garden items.  She is the author of numerous books including my favourite ‘Wild Flowers’.  She writes for The Telegraph and is a guest presenter on BBC Gardeners World.  She is married to Adam Nicholson the grandson of Vita Sackville-West.

Liz and I headed off bright and early to arrive in good time for the Perch Hill Open Day. Once we found the garden, no easy task due to a dearth of signs, we parked up in a field and headed in.  We were greeted with a wonderful sight:

Now there’s a welcome to draw you in.

Callundula and Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’

and poppies

and Golden oats, Stipa Gigantea

Buttons of Cirisium rivulare against more rust coloured metal.

 

So what can I tell you about the garden at Perch Hill? Well it is a feast for the eyes, of that there is no doubt.  Each and every which way that you turn your eye is greeted to an abundance of plant life.  The buildings themselves are a delightful collection of barns, outbuildings, Shepherds hut and a huge glasshouse located on a high point outside the village of Brightling. Each area is tastefully done, with an extravagant display of planting.  Pots are filled to overflowing, combinations and varieties of the flowers are interesting and unusual.

 

Summer bulbs Sparaxis with Heuchera, unknown variety

Even the cafe set up in the glasshouse is of the best possible taste.  Food is served on crockery by Emma Bridgewater, the shelves are crammed with a wonderful selection of scented leaf geraniums, succulents and vegetables.  There are interesting pots, vases and candlesticks on display some of which are for sale.  The large table we sat at was adorned with a collection of succulents, cacti, seed heads, stones and vessels.  

An interesting screening between diners.

The visit was very enjoyable day and both Liz and I came away with some ideas for our own gardens.  Our one disappointment was the lack of plants for sale.  I had thought that as Sarah Raven runs a mail order company there would be stock available to buy.  Wrong.  Clearly my mistake, Perch Hill is the cutting garden and school for Sarah Raven as well as her family home.  The mail order business is from another venue.

I would recommend a visit to one of the open days at Perch Hill, the website has all the details https://www.sarahraven.com/perch-hill-calendar

Just don’t go hoping to fill your car with plants.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Meadow

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Ascott house, Meadow, National Trust, wordless Wednesdsy