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...
Your garden is looking great, especially the Clematis--awesome. Beautiful Cotinus too, both of them and the Hydrangeas. Early morning is the best time--but fireworks at 7am? Tacky!
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of fireworks either. Sound and fury signifying nothing. Here big new thing is choreographed lit-up drone shows--all for that, not so noisy, no air pollution.
You've got a lot of wonderful summer color, Phillip! I'm envious of your beautiful Clematis and that very floirferous Hebe. I really don't get fireworks, especially those shot off during the daylight hours - we heard those constantly throughout the day yesterday and then of course it sounded like a war zone last night :(
ReplyDeleteYou made an excellent choice with Salvia 'hot lips': its very hardy and a perfect fit to the colorful vignette by the mail box.
ReplyDeleteI'm growing and loving Hydrangea 'Pee Wee' though I was fooled by the name thinking it will be smaller... it's rather robust. And speaking of Hydrangea: how's your cascading hydrangea "fairytrail bride" doing? I'm still looking for that one. Heronswood is having a Hydrangea festival in August. Maybe I'll find it there.
Although Agastache 'Little Adder' is lovely, the star in the photo is the dish of sparkling trinkets. One of Michael's creations?
Chavli
'Fairytrail Bride' is doing okay in a large pot but I don't think it is getting enough sun since there have been few blooms. I've even tried using a reflector to project more light onto it but so far no luck. The pot is too big to move so I may end up moving it out of that pot. It is growing well though. The birdbath with the stones are ones that we given to us.
DeleteHoly cow! Your garden is looking glorious, the combinations you've done just sing. Your neighbors have infinite inspiration. Hopefully the fireworks weren't awful as the day went on.
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten I used to have a Ladybird coreopsis at one time until I saw yours. It must have succumbed a winter or two ago. I love the Spreading Beauty hydrangea.
ReplyDeleteI am a sucker for blue/purple. Your garden looks lovely, Phillip! And I, too, dislike fireworks, do not get the appeal of spending so much money on BOOMS,
especially when they off until 3 am... Debbie
Debbie, I just found a photo of that hydrangea when it was first planted and it had pink flowers!
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