I was at the HTA National Plant Show at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry yesterday, a tedious journey up and down the M40, especially back but I did make a grateful stop at the wonderful Waterperry Gardens near Oxford. Formerly Miss Havergal’s School of Horticulture for Ladies (who trained the Land Girls and much more…) these are both ravishing ornamental gardens and productive ones – some seriously beautifully trained fruit trees.
Pretty much just the photos this time – it has been a long day, with Petersham Boot Camp yesterday, after the long slow drive back from Coventry, and so much on at the Nurseries today.
Waterperry Gardens are a delight – there is theatre and opera there, a charming shop and plant centre, amazing ceramics, great pots, home grown apple juice, so many roses, more roses, great herbaceous borders and islands, fantastic hedges, a cutting garden, lily pond, alpine garden, wilderness, statuary, Yew Henge, orchards, a national collection of saxifrage … so much to see – a gardening school still – and a cafe serving great food and one of the best cheese sandwiches I’ve had in a long time ….
There is an Aster festival later this year so if you cannot get there before, make enquiries and get there then – their cutting and propagation gardens will be delightful. Search through my back catalogue for photos from my last, and earlier visits.
I would say the HTA – Horticultural Trades Association – National Plant Show was exceptional. So many wonderful growers and nurseries, and so many friends to say hello to – and some new connections too of course. A really positive day.
The Teddington Gardener 