The Savill Garden and Windsor Great Park – summer cycling and a picnic, roses, dry gardens, shady glades and boggy bits, castles, lakes and wide open spaces

The Savill Garden was our first port of call today, an impressive collection of gardens within the larger vision of Windsor Great Park. I wanted to have a look at the rose garden in particular, a swirling design of tapering interlocking beds, the colour of the roses intensifying towards the centre (peaking with Munstead Wood, naturally) beneath an arching walkway that soars (OK, not soars perhaps) above the garden to give a bird’s-eye view (OK, maybe a bird just taking off…) –

Strawberry Hill

The last roses in this gallery were in a bed just outside the rose garden proper and despite the glorious display, could find no labels to give me a name. Sorry about that. Light fragrance but given the volume of flowers, it was nevertheless very pleasing.

A slightly dizzying view around and around the rose garden from atop the walkway. Should have been a little slower, sorry!

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Next up, the Dry Garden, a tapestry of planting with meandering gravel paths that roughly delineate planted areas from the walkways. A more traditional long border – with nepeta, lupins, peonies, poppies, penstemons and iris, marks one boundary, tall rhododendrons another. Several plants really caught my eye –

Moving out of the Dry Garden into the more shaded glades…

… and then out into Virginia Water and the larger expanse of Windsor Great Park, making our way to the Copper Horse statue overlooking Windsor Castle, for a picnic and a snooze! Returning via the llily-crowded Cow Pond and home…

Staring up through the tree canopy – with a little Bach playing on the ipod. Just managed to avoid the sounds of planes coming and going from Heathrow…