Garden Portrait: Edinburgh Botanic Garden

It is almost 9 months since my visit to Edinburgh, where I finally met the restless lady who takes us on regular walks in the north-east of England and the Algarve where she spends all most some of her time. After a morning of walking the streets of the city we got on a bus and headed out to the Botanical Gardens for an hour or two.

The entrance gate is quite stunning.

Being the end of the summer season the main interest in the garden was seed heads. I found a few interesting ones.

Cardiocrinum giganteum

Paeonia Mascula triternata

Lilium Formosanum

Crab Apple – Malus sylvestris

Insects were still busy collecting the pollen.

We walked and we talked and we finally found our way to the Japanese garden area where the large lily pond enthralled us both and the red bridge enticed us further into the garden.

The not so subtle smell of candyfloss was in the air (Cercidiphyllum japonicum, known as the Katsura Tree) and the leaves on the acers were turning.

Eventually we arrived at the huge glasshouses, but decided against paying to enter as it was such a glorious day after the cold, damp, dreich day before and we wanted to make the most of being outdoors. Besides we really didn’t have the time needed to really take in what was inside.

The borders near the glasshouses were filled with late summer planting and a variety of colourful penstemons lined the pathway to the entrance, but deep in conversation we really only fleetingly took in the beauty of this garden.

Veronicastrum

Cosmos

Penstemons

Penstemons

Penstemons

Pausing to admire the view over towards Calton Hill and Arthur’s Seat in the distance. Places that in order to explore would mean another meeting as our time together drew to a close.

Calton Hill and Arthur’s Seat

It was lovely to finally meet up with Jo and to share a walk with her, so it is only fitting that this post is linked to her walks 🙂

IF YOU ENJOY A WALK, LONG OR SHORT, THEN HAVE A LOOK AT JO’S SITE WHERE YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN IN WITH HER MONDAY WALKS.

Garden Portrait: Glamis Castle Italian Garden

In addition to the Walled Garden is the more formally designed Italian Garden, close to the actual castle. The garden  was laid out by Countess Cecilia, the Queen Mother’s mother, c.1910 to designs by Arthur Castings. The fan-shaped parterres of formal beds are separated by gravel walks. Between the two gardens lies the Pinetum which was planted c.1870 and has a variety of exotic trees, many native to North America.

Other features include pleached alleys of beech, a stone fountain and ornamental gates which commemorate the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday.

Pleached beech trees

Queen Mother’s Gates

Fountain in need of repair

Pleached beech trees

Memorial to Princess Margaret who was born here

Bear’s Breeches (Acanthus mollis)

Like most formal Italian gardens there is a fair amount of statuary here.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And in September the beds were full of colourful dahlias of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

IF YOU ENJOY A WALK, LONG OR SHORT, THEN HAVE A LOOK AT JO’S SITE WHERE YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN IN WITH HER MONDAY WALKS.

Garden Portrait: Glamis Castle Walled Garden

Glamis Castle lies in Angus, Scotland and is probably best known as the childhood home of the Queen Mother (Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon). At the age of four her father inherited the Earldom of Strathmore and Kinghorne and with it Glamis Castle and the family spent some of their time there.

It is the setting for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and is referred to several times in the play: – “Glamis thou art” “and yet woulds’t wrongly win: thou’dst have great Glamis”. It is widely believed that Duncan was murdered here by Macbeth.

Today it looks more like a French Chateau having been extensively renovated in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The walled garden is reached via a short walk through the estate alongside the Nature Trail and Pinetum.

Once used as a fruit and vegetable garden for the castle it fell into disrepair and only recently has major redevelopment work started, including the installation of a spectacular fountain.

Even in late September the garden was full of colour. Roses were still blooming.

The wide gravel pathways radiate from the centre of the garden with deep herbaceous borders on either side. Sedums, monarda, heleniums, echinacea, rudbeckia and asters were dominant.

Herbaceous Perennials

Rudbeckia

Monarda

Monarda

Asters

Trellises and pergolas were still covered in flowering roses and clematis and more dramatic colour can be seen in the brightly painted Japanese bridge and the vivid red door in the wall.

Roses and clematis

Clematis

Salvia?

Agave and sedum

(Korean burnet) Sanguisorba hakusanensis

Seed heads

Crocosmia ‘Hellfire’

Herbaceous border

Enticing doorway

Sunflower

Artichoke

Japanese bridge

Naturally I was drawn to the lean-to Victorian style glasshouses, which appear to still require a lot of work. However, the dilapidation has a charm of its own.

Next time we’ll have a wander around the Italian Garden.

IF YOU ENJOY A WALK, LONG OR SHORT, THEN HAVE A LOOK AT JO’S SITE WHERE YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN IN WITH HER MONDAY WALKS.

garden photography: little lanterns

During September I want to see your favourite flowers.

(This month I’m looking at flower portraits – showcase a flower that you are particularly fond of or one that is unusual)

The Chilean Lantern Tree (Crinodendron hookerianum) is unsurprisingly a genus from Chile.  Crinodendron are evergreen shrubs or small trees, with leathery, dark green leaves and nodding, urn-shaped flowers in the leaf axils. It usually flowers May – August and is fairly hardy. I have one growing in my garden, but it only had three or four flowers this year, though at the time of writing this (end August) I have noticed several new flowers forming!

Chilean lantern tree

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it September: Flower Portrait
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in October.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

This is the last week to showcase your favourite flowers. Next month we will be looking at beautiful gardens – share with us what is special about your favourite garden. Don’t forget this can be your own garden or any garden from around the world. You can post one photo, or since I am very greedy, several photos from the garden. If it is a public garden then please include details of how to get there. I look forward to visiting new places with you.

garden photography: covered in velvet

During September I want to see your favourite flowers.

(This month I’m looking at flower portraits – showcase a flower that you are particularly fond of or one that is unusual)

‘Velvet-Sage’ (salvia-leucantha) is an evergreen subshrub to 1.2m in height, with narrowly lance-shaped leaves white beneath, and small white flowers with conspicuous downy purple clayces. Also known as Mexican Bush Sage. It is definitely a plant you want to reach out and stroke!

Salvia-leucantha-‘Velvet-Sage’

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it September: Flower Portrait
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in October.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

garden photography: in a spin

During September I want to see your favourite flowers.

(This month I’m looking at flower portraits – showcase a flower that you are particularly fond of or one that is unusual)

Spiral Aloe (Aloe polyphylla) is a species in the genus Aloe that is endemic to the Kingdom of Lesotho in the Drakensberg mountains. It is well known for its strikingly symmetrical, five-pointed spiral growth habit. Wikipedia

I am very fond of succulents and by moving to Cornwall where frost and extreme cold is rare (crosses fingers) I hope to grow some of these architectural plants in my garden.

Aloe

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules🙂

• Create your own post and title it September: Flower Portrait
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in October.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

garden photography: a turquoise flower

During September I want to see your favourite flowers.

(This month I’m looking at flower portraits – showcase a flower that you are particularly fond of or one that is unusual)

I have a lot of flower portraits on this site so I am going to use this month to showcase some of the more unusual species that I have come across. Starting with the dazzling Turquoise Ixia (Ixia viridiflora) which has one of the rarest and most beautiful colours in the plant world. The satiny purple centres and yellow anthers contrast beautifully with the turquoise petals. This one is flowering in the garden at St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. It took my breath away when I first saw it.

The only ones left in the wild come from around the Tulbagh in South Africa, Cape Province and the seed is spread by the monkey beetle. There are about 50 species in the ixia genus. All have tough-looking strappy leaves and open dark-centred flowers but I. viridiflora, which bears a dozen purple-eyed flowers on each 18in spike in May and June, is by far the showiest (and tallest). And the most difficult to photograph!

If you would like to join in with Garden Photography then please take a look at my Garden Photography Page. No complicated rules 🙂

• Create your own post and title it September: Flower Portrait
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Add the tag “GardenChallenge” so everyone can find the posts easily in the WP Reader
• Get your post in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in October.
• Please visit the sites in the comments to see what others are posting.

September flowers

Sandwich Secret Gardens

globe thistle

grasses

Double Japanese anemone

dahlia unfolding

echinacea

Oenothera lindheimeri, formerly Gaura lindheimeri

autumn crocus

aster

Physalis alkekengi

passionflower

Or do you have a different favourite in September?

Nalinki at Angles and Views has started #flowersoverflowers where we can share our favourite blossoms of the week. It seems like a good idea to spread some blooms across the Internet. I am more than happy to join in.