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carol6ma_7ari

What I learned from English gardens

carol6ma_7ari
12 years ago

Recently, after much planning, my husband and I went to England, me to see gardens and he to visit museums. It was a compromise trip of only 6 days, but we got to see a lot in London and not too far outside it.

I had arranged for us to be picked up at Heathrow (the airport) by a car and driver from a company that does custom tours. One garden on my must-see list was Mottisfont Abbey, about a 2 hour drive, and it was open on weekends and Mondays. So since our trip got us to England on Monday morning, it had to be done this way.

The car and driver arrangement was expensive, but at our ages (mid-70's), we can't waste time waiting days for certain events, we have to make them happen.

Mottisfont has the national collection of old roses in a walled garden. None of the tours we looked up or emailed about, went to Mottisfont, so we had to arrange our own visit. Worth it! The old roses are pastels, not those bright modern shades. So the colors were soft pinks and whites with other perennials interplanted in white, rose, lavender and some soft yellow. The tall old brick walls are also soft shades and act as a good background. Because the walls stop the wind and hold the heat, they can also grow espaliered fig trees up them! And with a large group of volunteer gardeners, the beds are always neat: no weeds, no dead leaves, no spent flowers or dying buds. They do deadhead a lot. Here are some pix, one of a wheelbarrow (just one of about 5 or 6 that one day) of deadheadings, and one of just a small part of the gardens, which are extensive.

This pic show eremus (foxtail lilies, about 7 ft. tall, soft yellow), roses, white lychnis, lavender, roses etc, and a brick wall in the background.

We then were driven back toward London, to RHS WIsley Gardens (Royal Horticultural Society) which would need a week to explore. Much to learn, glasshouses for many different climates, and it's all huge.

The 2nd day we were driven to Sissinghurst (there are tour buses that go there) and got to see the White Garden which is one of many "rooms" made with hedges to separate them. Here's a photo of some filipendula purpura, bigger and brighter than any I've seen elsewhere.



Then onward to Great Dixter, onlhy 11 miles away but a different microclimate, very windy. A non-stately house, and a cottagey set of gardens including a wonderful vegetable one. I took a pic of a clump of brilliant rose campion (lychnis coronaria) about 5 ft. wide - it absolutely glowed!

What I learned: work larger; don't put in measly little single plants (unless they'll grow huge and important). Vary textures in one bed. Keep beds clean of weeds and dead leaves. Climate may be important (we can't match those frostless winters) but we have lots of good plants for our area. It's the WORK that goes into the garden that makes it pay off in gorgeousness.

If you get a chance to go to England, there are tour companies that will take a small group around for a week, so you can see a lot. Time your visit to the bloomtime of the flowers you're most interested in. I avoided the time of the big Chelsea Flower show which sounded crowded and commercial. Also, many of these gardens have terrific bookshops and also have lunches made from their own - or local - produce!

Also, there's a Museum of Garden History in London, worth a visit. It is sited at Lambeth Palace (south side of the Thames, near Waterloo Tube Station) in an old church building, and next to it is the garden of the Tradescants who were major plant importers and developers several hundred years ago. I bought several small paperbacks there, such as one on cottage gardens, one on walled kitchen gardens, and (my favorite) one on the history of garden gnomes!

Carol

Comments (8)

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Carol -

    It sounds like a lovely trip! Would you be willing to upload a bunch of your garden photos to a site like Picasa or Photobucket and provide a link? I'd love to browse.

    Barb

  • carol6ma_7ari
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It WAS lovely! I'm beginning to think of "lovely" as a British word. As for the pix, I didn't take many because there are so many good ones online. Just google Sissinghurst, RHS Wisley, Mottisfont Abbey, Great Dixter etcetera.

    Carol

  • diggingthedirt
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sounds like an excellent trip! The filipendula purpura looks like a knock out - I wonder how much it differs from our native f. rubra; I'll have to check it out.

    I love that you took photos of wheelbarrows full of of dead-headed spent blooms! That's just the kind of shot I come home with, much to the amusement of my non-gardening pals.

    OK, who wants to sign up for a small group tour next spring?

  • diggingthedirt
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just want to add that I learned more about Filipendula, one of my favorites, by reading your post.

    I have F. rubrum, and never realized it wanted lots of moisture. It's growing in a hot sunny spot where sedum and thyme do well, so apparently too dry for its tastes. Googling F. roseum led me to that info. Now I'll remember to give it a drink whenever I water the nearby pots.

    So, garden travel can reward even those who don't make the trip! Thanks!

  • terrene
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sounds like you had a great trip. The English are lucky to have such a mild climate. I love the photo of the garden and am a sucker for pastels.

    DTD, you gave me some Filipendula rubra at my swap and I love it. But it is a wetland plant, so I planted it in a bed with other moisture-loving plants. Last year it was terribly dry and with watering restrictions I didn't water it much, so it wasn't happy and turned into dried sticks by late in the season. This year I've already mulched that bed with a fairly thick layer of dead leaves (an English faux pas?) to conserve moisture.

  • diggingthedirt
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    LOL, terrene, the real faux pas, English or otherwise, is to plant something where it's not going to be happy - I think real Brits would applaud chopped leaves, they're so ... thrifty compared to us. I have to cut mine back after blooming, because it gets really ratty looking.

    I dug a wallow a few years back, to accommodate darmera peltata, and this might be a good time for me to divide my filipendula and move some there. In theory, I leave a slightly leaky hose end there all the time, but that hasn't panned out quite like I thought it would.

  • carol6ma_7ari
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    So, you have wetlands? Is it just boggy, or do you have a slow-running creek through it? I'm asking because I saw a really interesting plant in England near a little creek (at Great Dixter) and looked it up, and it should be able to grow here in our zones. It's called "gunnera" and has giant scary leaves. Look it up!

    All we manage to grow in our wetlands are skunk cabbage.

    Carol

  • diggingthedirt
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Gunnera and darmera are really similar, and I've tried them both - I like plants with big dramatic foliage. I don't have a wetland, my yard is a small in-town lot (1/3 acre) but I dug out a small low spot in a shady border in hopes of providing the kind of area bog plants would tolerate. Maybe next time I've got energy to spare I'll re-dig it and line it with plastic - probably would have to remove about 2 feet of soil for that to work well, so to be honest I probably won't ever find the time.

    There are 2 awesome clumps of gunnera, about 6' tall, in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. They're growing in standing water, which is how I got the idea for my little wallow. I thought I had a photo of them, but I can't seem to find it.