The Garden House (Devon, England)
The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley. The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle. The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier. Keith Wiley lef...
Yes, this is a must for me too. I have three containers full of it. Some people grow it in the shade, mine is in full Florida sun and does great. I am trying to over winter one of them.
ReplyDeleteI also can't say enough good things about it, except I wish it came in another color. The first time I saw them was planted with Poinsettias, it was a nice combo.
ReplyDeleteMy "Diamond Frost" is still going strong as well - one in a hanging basket and the other in a large container with geraniums - which are also still going strong. Maybe I'll try bringing it inside to over winter.
ReplyDeleteIt is a marvelous plant. I use it every year. The one with the dark leaves does as well plus you have the darker leaves.
ReplyDeleteI have not tried this although I see it in lots of my gardening mags. I am always for a tough plant. It's on my list!
ReplyDeletePhillip, I have to get this plant into my garden~It's stellar. gail
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing. Have two friends who have a garden on James Island used in sweeps in a gray-white-blue garden. It always looks like mist rising early morning!
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