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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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Fuchsia 'Hawkshead'

 

We fell for fuchsias in a big way when we moved here because they didn't fare well in the southern heat at all. We started growing them here in pots the first year and then learned that many can be grown in the ground. One of my favorites is 'Hawkshead' which has pendulous white flowers. If you look closely at the flowers, you will notice that they have green tips. 'Hawkshead' is a vigorous upright plant and reaches about 3 feet in both height and width. It tends to have a heavy bloom in early summer followed by another one in fall here in our garden.


 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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  1. Kris PetersonOctober 5, 2021 at 11:31 AM

    I fell in love with this fuchsia too. I tried growing it outside and, to its credit, it made it through our summer if not into the following year. It's just too dry for it to thrive in my borders here, although I might be tempted to try it again in a large pot inside my lath house.

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  2. Hoover BooOctober 5, 2021 at 2:08 PM

    So lovely!

    Fuchsias grow well in Sunset 24 where I grew up--23, just one zone inland, not so good. Yours are spectacular.

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  3. ksOctober 5, 2021 at 8:49 PM

    My Hawkshead tends pink here in Napa-I assume it's the heat since Anabelle pinks up in summer too. It's a prolific bloomer from the moment it leafs out in April.

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