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...
Wow Philip... I wasn't prepared to think magnolias would be in bloom already... even in the south! i've been poring over a list of magnolias for the past couple days... I've got it pared down to thirteen would you believe?! This is tough... wishing I had more space. Maybe it's time to remove more trees to make space for improved varieties... a hard decision. Larry
ReplyDeleteStar Magnolias are gorgeous in bud and stunning in flower. The rest of the year... Beautiful picture Phillip!
ReplyDeletePhillip, I love this shot, you've captured the beauty of Star Magnolia!
ReplyDeleteMine will like wise be wiped out, too. Such is the fate of this too early bloomer! gail
This is a great shot. You are lucky to have any blooms at this time. You can savor them. I noticed that your garden got a nod in Pam's book. Great!
ReplyDeletePretty! And I bet it smells wonderful, too! I don't usually see this type of magnolia here - its petals look quite delicate.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous bloom and photo! Jeannine
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