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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...
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A vase before the frost

We've had a few frosts during the last week. There were still lots of blooms left in the garden so I cut a few of them before the cold snap. 

 The rose 'Gold Medal', one of our favorite hybrid teas, is sending up 6 feet stalks that we see outside the bathroom window. The hydrangeas are still covered with dramatic, dark purple balls of color. I don't have many dahlias in the garden and I don't recall where the orange one came from but it is very pretty. Dahlias are to be dug up after the first frost so that is a chore I must do this week. There is another pretty pom-pom dahlia called 'Lolipop' in the front garden that I purchased at a Master Gardener plant sale shortly after we moved.

 I have been very pleased with Baby's Breath (Gypsophila) although it has gotten much bigger than expected. It is too tall for the front of the border it resides in and I would like to transplant it before spring.

 And in the rear is the remnants of Goldenrod, a good filler flower for an arrangement but so, so messy.

 Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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Comments

  1. Lisa at GreenbowNovember 12, 2018 at 10:25 AM

    Such a striking combination of blooms. Those golden roses really pop in that color wave. Happy IAVOM.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AaronNovember 13, 2018 at 5:58 AM

    Nice combination! What makes goldenrod so messy -- just in a vase or in general?

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    Replies
    1. Phillip OliverNovember 13, 2018 at 8:40 AM

      The dried blooms are very tiny and fall everywhere when disturbed.

      Delete
  3. Hoover BooNovember 13, 2018 at 3:47 PM

    Ohmygosh the color of those hydrangea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Endah MurniyatiNovember 14, 2018 at 6:49 PM

    Beautiful! The color of hydrangea is so stunning!

    ReplyDelete

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