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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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Pink Dogwood


The pink dogwood (variety unknown) is the largest tree in the garden. I found a photo of how it looked when we first moved in. It was smaller than I remembered -

2016

So it has grown quite a lot in five years. There are so many beautiful varieties on the market now and we have quite a lot of them at the nursery where I work. The owners recently planted several along the parking lot last year. I was just noticing today how beautiful 'Cherokee Chief' is and wished that I had taken a photo.

Our tree brings us lots of pleasure and it is always a treat when it blooms.



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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Comments

  1. chavlinessApril 24, 2021 at 7:21 AM

    Look at all that grass in 2016... I'm sure not even you could imaging the garden you've created. I love Dogwoods, their blooms make me think of butterflies.

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  2. Hoover BooApril 24, 2021 at 12:11 PM

    How long does the flora show last on Dogwoods? It's magnificent.

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  3. julesApril 24, 2021 at 1:00 PM

    Here in Georgia dogwoods have taken a huge hit. There numbers are not what they were. I have heard this is due to anthracnose, but I’m not sure. Glad to know you don’t seem to be a set up for fungus, even in your moist climate.

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  4. Kris PetersonApril 24, 2021 at 1:08 PM

    It's a gorgeous thing! And sadly something that won't grow in my climate.

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  5. CanadianGardenJoyApril 25, 2021 at 4:15 PM

    I desperately tried to plant a dogwood after I have yearned for one for so long. I was entranced by those gorgeous flowers .. I was deep into dogwood flower ENVY .. but alas the one I tried was diseased as were the whole shipment ... I was just too defeated to try again, but I so appreciate seeing other gardeners ! Thank you ;-)

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  6. SwimrayApril 30, 2021 at 5:58 PM

    Powdery mildew magnet here in my Virginia yard, especially when summer hits. But they hang on and just don't grow as fast year to year.

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