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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...

Canna "Panache"


This is Canna "Panache" that we purchased at Plant Delights. This was a plant that I first read about in Pam Harper's book "Time Tested Plants" and it has been on my wish list for a long time. It is rather unique looking for a canna, don't you think? The blooms look a little tired from the heat but it is performing nicely and growing fast.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. This is a most unusual Canna bloom. I have never seen nor heard of such a plant. It is beautiful.

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  3. That's a beautiful canna bloom. Not as 'loud' as some can be.

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  4. So lovely...much better than the typical, somewhat floopy-looking Canna flowers! I actually was browsing their website the other day and came upon Canna 'Intrigue'...which actually tempted me with those powdery pewter leaves...yum!

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  5. From the picture I thought it was an orchid! Very interesting Canna bloom.

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  6. Well, you know me and cannas. I finally had to get rid of all of them but one or two. The leaf rollers were unstoppable. They're finally leaving the few I have left alone.

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  7. Beautiful and unique canna. Cannas do well here so this is one for the list.

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  8. Very unusual canna. By the way your header photo is spectacular.

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