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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...

Chinese Snowball

Chinese Snowball (Viburnum macrocephalum)





Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Oh my goodness, that is stunning. I planted one 2 years ago. Last year it didn't bloom at all. This year it's about 4'-5' tall and has dozens of blooms, but they're still lime green. Can't wait until it's as huge and beautiful as yours! Did you prune it to shape it like that?

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  2. C.C., it hasn't been pruned except for some of the older limbs. Actually, it probably needs it. I'm thinking about doing some pruning on it this year after the blooms fade. It grows fast once it gets going.

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  3. It looks good enough to eat, Phillip! How wonderful!

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  4. Love, love, LOVE your flowers! Your blog header is gorgeous, too...I assume that's your own doings, too? Just beautiful!
    ~Margaret

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  5. Wonderful! I grow common snowball, viburnum opulus Roseum, which I hope wont get so big :). Your is simply amazing.

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  6. Gorgeous! Do they have any scent?

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  7. Hi Christine, unfortunately they do not!

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