Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Lockdown continues and these gardens, as are all, are closed to the public and so it is back to the archives and this collection of photographs from early May last year. I've brought it forward as the Wisteria has really taken to the warm days we have enjoyed this past few weeks and is…
Continue reading ➞ Nymans, pure Romance …
After dropping my Sister- and Mother- in law off at Gatwick Airport, a short drive down the M23 to Nymans, a National Trust Property of great charm. Romantic ruins, beautiful gardens, far reaching views across woodland and downs, formal gardens and naturalistic, some tragedy, some infamy, quite a lot of beauty. Sadly too early…
Continue reading ➞ Nymans, pure Romance …
One of my favourite gardens here - Nymans, in Handcross, a few miles south of Gatwick and featuring gothic ruins, expansive views, woodland, formal gardens, a grove of Davidia involucrata (the Handkerchief Tree), a 100' pergola walkway smothered in Wisteria, the first Heather Garden in the UK, tropical planting, double herbaceous borders, superb salvias, a…
Continue reading ➞ Nymans – Horticultural Pedigree
Nearly time for the annual Wisteria Blossom Show - some, like this example, are almost there - others are just showing plump, silky buds on a bare fretwork of stems, but a few more days of warmth and sunshine and it will be Showtime! A divine few weeks of peppery-scented intense blues, ghostly blues and…
The woods of the Wild Garden, betwixt the Rock Garden, Alpine Meadow and Seven Acres (at RHS Wisley) were bright and fragrant with witch hazels, with names I had read about but not seen either on Battleston Hill nor at Kew. These delicate thread-like flowers are completely hardy and will thrive, unharmed by snow and…
Continue reading ➞ Still bewitched by Witch Hazels…
There seems to be a series developing here. Garden Centres I have known. Some, like Petersham Nurseries are pure fantasy, a theatrical experience where plants dress the stage, along with much else besides. Wych Cross Garden Centre, just south of East Grinstead, has magic too but for different reasons - real passion and a collection…
Continue reading ➞ Roses all the way; a superb specialist rose nursery in Sussex.
Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a phase. Indulging my delight in all things orange, with the return of the deciduous azalea, coming in to flower roundabouts now (yellows, reds, pinks, purples too, of course). The Grand Display may possibly a little later than in previous years, but time enough to plan a visit to…
Continue reading ➞ The return of something orange…
Bank Holiday Monday and two houses, one new to me - the Arts and Crafts Standen, the second familiar - the beautiful Nymans. Standen is an Arts & Crafts survivor, built by Philip Webb and with interiors by Morris & Co., quite complete. The country home of a careful lawyer, it is not an extravagant…
Continue reading ➞ Gardens of the Sussex Weald – Standen & Nymans
