There Goes Summer #12

The last of my summer galleries so here are a few of my favourites this year

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Alstroemeria

Irene Watts

Helenium

Thunbergia-alata

veronicastrum

primula-vialii (red-hot-poker-primrose)

scabious

Magnolia hypoleuca

Constance Finn

White Lilies

Paeonia lactiflora ‘Bowl of Beauty’

Butterfly on Cone Flower

Lily

Chocolate Cosmos

Pastel Poppies

Globe Thistle

Which one is your favourite?

I hope you have enjoyed my summer galleries and will stick around to see what autumn brings 🙂

Quex Walled Garden

In the most easterly part of Kent you will find the Powell-Cotton Museum, ( a fascinating private collection of 19th century natural history mainly from Africa and Asia ), Quex House and Gardens. The house at Quex is named after its owners in the 1500s who were the Quekes family and who prospered in the wool industry of Kent. My reason for visiting is the historic Victorian Walled Garden which is being restored.  It was an unseasonally cold day in July with rain threatening so I was quite pleased to be within the shelter of the lovely red-brick walls surrounding this garden, and to find a couple of glass-houses where I could pop inside.

The first small wooden-framed glass-house was just inside the doorway to the garden and full of lovely terracotta pots and a variety of pretty pelargoniums.

Some of the plants and flowers in the garden have a very tropical look about them.

Tigridia

Tigridia (Tiger Flower)

Tigridia

French Marigolds

Montbretia

and colour was everywhere

Helenium

French Marigolds

Hydrangea

Hydrangea

Globe Thistle

Hollyhock

I headed into the large glasshouse filled with cacti and succulents to get out of a squall.

and loved the different textures and shapes

Pots full of red geraniums make an attractive collection

and a final look at the garden

Staff only

A workman’s tools

Cucumber Pit

Clematis

Artichoke

Angel’s Fishing Rod

 And if you live in Thanet then maybe you’d like to volunteer in the garden and help bring it back to its former glory. I know I would.

Here comes summer #10

Everlastings (Helichrysum orientale.)

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Here comes summer #9

The White Garden – Sissinghurst

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The-Priest’s-House

Agrostemma-gitago-‘Ocean-Pearl’

north-wall—white-clematis

urn in the white garden

Thunbergia-alata

Vestal Virgin by Rosandic

Solanum-Laxum-‘Album’

Shasta Daisies

Gate-to-Delos

Cleome

hydrangea mop-head

under the rose arch Rosa Mulliganii

roses

hydrangea lace-cap

the-towers

veronicastrum

cosmos

You can read more about Sissinghurst Castle Garden in my Garden Portrait.

Secret Gardens of Ludlow

Once a year in Ludlow gardeners open up their gardens to visitors; there are large gardens and small gardens and most of them are secret because you cannot see them from the street. Because of the medieval way the streets were planned most plots are long and narrow with the front door opening onto the street. Although many houses in the old town have pots of flowers and plants outside their front door some are lucky enough to have further outdoor space hidden behind like this Regency façade below with Wisteria climbing the columns.

 I have used a few creative effects here as these photos were taken on a rainy day and the raindrops weren’t always beneficial 🙂

Here comes summer #8

Lovely Lilies

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cherry-eyed-pumpkin

royal-braid

ballerina-girl

Pashley Manor Gardens

Pashley Manor Gardens is on the border of East Sussex and Kent. Famous for its Tulip Festival in spring regrettably I have never visited before despite my love of tulips. It is a garden worth visiting at any time during the open season from 1st April to 30th September as there are several different areas. Between the end of April and mid-May the woods are open for the Bluebell Walk when the woodland is carpeted in a magical mantle of blue. July and August is Lily time and each year Pashley exhibits the work of many eminent sculptors, including work by local sculptors, some of which is for sale.

There is also a lovely courtyard tea-room and summer terrace where you can sit under a parasol, eat quiche and salad, sip iced-coffee and admire the wonderful views over the lawns and old moat. And try to ignore the dozens of ducks underfoot.

The first area you enter are the herbaceous and  hot borders, full of roses, lilies, dahlias, clematis, monarda, helenium, fuchsias and penstemon.

 

Alstroemeria

Alstroemeria

Roses

Dahlia

Horse Head

Helenium

Lily

Hot Borders

From here you can wander through to the woodland or enter the Walled Garden where you will find roses and a potager.

Hydrangea

Constance Finn

Sculpture on a bench

Irene Watts

Up some steps – stop to admire the sculptures – and into the walled swimming pool area which looks very inviting now that the sun has appeared. At the far end is a small greenhouse filled with pelargoniums, pretty Streptocarpus and ferns.

Steps to the manor house

Sculpture on a bench

Swimming Pool

Pelargonium

Streptocarpus

Boy sitting

Amongst the borders edging the lawns and summer terrace are dozens of perfumed lilies

Lily

Lilies

Lily

Summer Terrace

The Rotunda

Girl and Dog

Acanthus Mollis

Owl

Tulip Gates

Girl playing the flute

Water-lily bird bath

and my favourite sculpture:

Wood Nymph

Here Comes Summer #7

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

Jenny Joseph (partial)

pelargonium

hollyhocks and buddleja

hollyhock

clematis

scabious

campanula

phlox

clematis

hollyhock

cornflower

hardy geranium

achimenes

agapanthus

salvia

sweet-pea

hydrangea

agapanthus

clematis

asters

Ailsa of Where’s My Backpack is having a purple moment. Join in if you can.

Here comes summer #6

Blues, Pinks, Purples

(click on an image to scroll through the gallery and for more information)

Echium-pininana

Osteospermum-‘Bodegas-Pink’

Regal Pelargonium

Dactylorhiza-foliosa

Salvia-sensation

primula-vialii (red-hot-poker-primrose)

Garden Portrait: Logan Botanic Garden

Logan Botanic Garden is situated at the south-western tip of Scotland in an almost island-like setting, where the warming influence of the Gulf Stream allows thousands of different species from the warm temperate regions of the world to flourish. There are two contrasting areas in the garden: The Walled Garden and The Woodland Garden. As you walk into the gardens from the Visitor Reception area, you have little idea of what awaits you. On the left pathways lead to the woodland, which is no ordinary woodland as it contains Chilean specimens, Australasian collections and a Tasmanian Creek and viewing platform. Not really what you’d expect this far north of the UK.  Walking through the entrance into the Walled Garden lies a complete surprise. Sheltered by 15 foot high walls are rolling lawns, groves of tree ferns and palms, water features and exotic plants.

Entering the Walled Garden

aeonium-holochrysum-‘Blushing-Beauty’

Tree Fern Grove

Osteospermum-‘Prostratum’

Succulents

It’s all very strange and not remotely Scottish – even the sun is burning down making me feel as though I have suddenly been transported to the southern hemisphere.

Cornish Palm

Beautiful slate sculptures

Hardy Geranium

Wide pathways

South African flower beds

Texture

Salvia-leucantha-‘Velvet-Sage’

There is even a Chusan Palm Avenue

A formal pond with sculptures and irises

Formal Pond

Flag Irises

Ascending

Formal Pond

Girl With Dove II

Cordyline Avenue

Exotic Plants

Impatiens-Apiculata

Filo-pastry-bark

Erysimum-‘Bowles-Mauve’

Echium Pininana

Golden Centre

Primula Vialii

Blechnum-palmiforme

Alstromeria-Aurea

Osteospermum-‘Bodegas-Pink’

Asphodelus-ramosus and a bee on stilts!

A Bug Hotel in the Castle Woodland

And when you have exhausted the Walled Garden, turn your attention to the Woodland Garden where we met an Aussie from Sydney who was astonished to have come all this way only to find eucalyptus and palms and callistemons from New Zealand and Australia.

Steps through the tree ferns

Welcome to Tasmania

Marri (Corymbia calophylla)

Callistemon-pallidus

And before leaving (almost the last people there as usual, but that’s a good thing because then you get to photograph the gardens without people getting in the way) we headed to the Potting Shed Bistro (how could I possibly resist with a name like that? ) for a slice of key lime pie and vanilla ice-cream. We took it out onto the terrace and admired the lovely rock garden with its succulents and slate sculptures for one last time.

I hope you have been as bedazzled by this garden as I was.

More lovely walks can be found over at my friend Jo’s place.