A Week of Flowers 2023, Day Two

Day Two of my ‘A week of Flowers’ and my mood has lifted already! So many people are already joining in and I have been enjoying all the blooms being shared. 🤗 This is my way of brightening up the shortest days of the year, but even if you are in the sunny southern hemisphere I believe you can never have enough flowers! Perhaps you would like to join in the fun? Just post one photo a day (or more!) of flowers from your gardens for this coming week through to December 7th and leave a link to your post in the comments below.

Actually I am bending the rules a little today as these flowers aren’t from my own garden. The dahlias were photographed in the UK in August while visiting some gardens with my parents to celebrate my Dad’s 90th birthday. Aren’t they gorgeous?

And these Echinacea were in my Mum’s front garden this summer. Love that colour next to the blue Geraniums. My Mum is still as keen a gardener as ever at 87!

(A special hello to my Mum today who took a tumble the other day and has broken her nose. ❣️)

Have a wonderful day full of flowers, and see you tomorrow for Day Three! 🌷🌹🌼

A Visit to Cottesbrooke Hall Garden, August 2023

While in the UK recently I visited a garden just a stone’s throw away from childhood home. Cottesbrooke Hall is set in some of the prettiest countryside in Northamptonshire.  The view from the front of the house looks across towards Brixworth, with the church spire just visible in the distance.

I remember fun days in the summer holidays, cycling along the gated roads here as a child and teenager, where we must have passed the gates to this fabulous estate already owned at that time by the MacDonald-Buchanan family famous for their whisky business. But they only began opening the garden (and house) much later.

We didn’t look at the entire garden this time as it involves quite a bit of walking and my Dad was happy to see the main borders anyway. This is the Statue Walk border.

There was quite a lot of pink here, but it was lovely nonetheless!

The Sanguisorba in the centre caught my eye.

The ‘long border’ is in the shletered terraced garden, protected also by the surrounding trees. It changes every time I go, and was looking slightly dishevelled. I find that quite attractive as it is much more like a ‘real life’ garden. 😉

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As with Coton Manor that we had visited a day earlier, Dahlias were at their best and they had a lovely selection.

Someone went mad with some seed packets of annual Cosmos and Cleome here!

The huge Lebanon cedars in the grounds are so awe-inspiring. If only they could talk, and tell the tales of the estate and house. The house dates back to the early 18th century, but there was undoubtedly something here before that too.

I noticed that Nicotiana was a favourite of the gardener, and it reminded me to buy some seed for next year. I think these are all Nicotiana, but please do correct me if I’m wrong!

The other area of the garden that we didn’t visit this time is set in a ravine with water at the bottom and tea houses positioned at various intervals. It is a wonderful spot for children to explore, with many large acers and other magnificent trees. But the entire garden is a pleasure to walk around.

Hope you enjoyed the visit!

A Visit to Coton Manor Garden, August 2023

More often than not I will pay a visit to Coton Manor Garden when I am in the UK, as it is only a few miles away from my parents’/childhood home. Settled into a hillside in the beautiful Northamptonshire countryside, the gardens are very sheltered. Naturally they also benefit from having many attractive mature trees too. And the stone cottage on the grounds adds to the romance of the views.

In spring their magical bluebell wood is a major attraction, and in late winter the garden opens up for hellebores and snowdrops… I haven’t seen it at that time of year, but the autumn Cylamen are also very pretty under the tree canopy in the hellebore area.

Also in that corner this sphere in a small ornamental pond is fascinating… the inside is painted gold and looks as though it is lit up.

We have been going there for years and every year it is slightly different. This year the dahlias were especially lovely.

As we had my Dad with us we didn’t go down the slope to the bed at the bottom of the hill this time, where flamingos strut around next to the pond. (The walk back up is steep when you’re 90!) But I did get a shot of some of their fluffy chickens.

This is my favourite border, always planted in pink, purple and blue.

 But I liked the hot border this year too…

…with this yellow Kniphofia. I have never been able to decide if I like the red ones, but I do rather like the yellow ones. What do you think?

Here are some of the other highlights. Click on any photo for a slideshow.

The views are spectacular and they serve delicious food in the tearooms. Their website has more photos as well as a lovely little video (with Carol Klein) focussing on some of the immaculate borders.

 

Garden Tours

 

I visited a garden today – in Cornwall, England.

https://ngs.org.uk/carminowe-valley-garden-cornwall-a-garden-worth-exploring/

Absolutely beautiful! 🌸

And then I popped into one in Derbyshire later on.    

https://ngs.org.uk/the-smithy-derbyshire-a-hidden-treasure/

Charming. 😃

How did I do that, you may ask? Do I have a private jet? A helicopter? Can I beam myself from Bavaria to England? (Wish I could!)

No, I looked at NGS charity website and clicked on the button for Virtual Garden Visits.

https://ngs.org.uk/virtual-garden-visits/

When it became clear that the NGS (National Garden Scheme) gardens would be unable to open their gates to the public in spring in order to raise money for the nurses they support, the charity decided to share some virtual garden tours on their website instead. At the peak of the lockdown this was such a wonderful way to while away a few hours and escape reality, viewing some enchanting gardens all across Britain.

Mum‘s Pink Poppy

Well, with some of the restrictions being lifted in the UK, most of the gardens are now open at last, albeit with the booking of time slots as a requirement. Details of the gardens are up-to-date on the website and booking a time slot can be done online too. It‘s really easy.

Californian Poppies

If you can‘t visit one yourself, or there isn‘t one near you, do take a look at some of the virtual tours instead. And perhaps you might consider making a small donation while you are on the website? The charity has almost reached its target of £100,000  for its Help Support our Nurses campaign launched in April. Every little helps.

And here is a mini tour of my own garden in Bavaria as it stands so far. 😃

xxx

 

The NGS and Tulips in Dunsborough Gardens

In the UK the National Garden Scheme has been raising money for health and nursing charities for almost a hundred years through the opening of private gardens across the nation. This year those charities are threatened with a drastic drop in donations as gardens are kept closed due to the pandemic restrictions. The National Garden Scheme website has therefore started a campaign to show videos of many of the gardens that were due to open this spring, in the hope that visitors may also consider a donation. 😉

Do explore their excellent website. It is glorious to see all those wonderful gardens in the spring sunshine, but there are also many stories surrounding the gardens and gardeners, as well as news, garden products and even recipes.

If you like tulips you will LOVE this virtual tour of the tulips gardens at Dunsborough Park, UK. Do visit!

Dutch masters; a virtual visit to the Dunsborough Park tulip festival

In a Vase on Monday: A Seaside Vignette

My parents visited the British North Norfolk coast last week and sent me this card of Wells beach huts… in the snow! Well, that was perfect for cooling us down in the heatwave! I have never seen snow in Norfolk, so I wonder if this was just an artist’s imagination…

Anyway, it inspired this little ‘vignette’ with my own little beach hut purchased at the Anchor Shop in Blakeney in Norfolk last summer. And, of course, some peonies and Alchemilla.

The postcard with colourful beach huts on the sand is more familiar to me!

The single peony below (no name as it was wrongly labelled as ‘Bowl of Beauty’) has a lemony tinged centre and looked perfect nestled among the Alchemilla flowers. Mmm, like a glass of lemonade!

The main attraction is Peony ‘Festiva maxima’ though. Tinged with pink, its creamy white petals always remind me of ice cream with raspberry sauce! (Something else that would cool me down….)

Today is in fact a lot cooler and this morning was perfect for getting some gardening jobs done. A few showers have barely dampened the soil, so I am still hoping for some rain: May was far too warm and dry. Let’s see what June will bring!

Thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting this meme!

In a Vase on Monday: Sea Fever

A visit to the seaside last week was a real delight – here in Bavaria we are pretty much landlocked, so the smell of the sea air and the sight of such a huge sky, the glittering sea and the long horizon were quite magical. Memories of childhood holidays on the North Norfolk coast have been flooding back since, so now that I am back home I thought my Monday vase should adopt the seaside theme…

“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky”

(from Sea Fever by John Masefield)

Cosmos Xanthos, Scabiosa ochroleuca, Succisella inflexa, Miscanthus, Tanacetum (Feverfew), and Ceratostigma (Leadwort).

Cosmos Purity, Caryopteris, Feverfew, white Lavender, and lilac Aster.

Zinnia, Tithonia and Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’

“I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied…”

from Sea Fever by John Masefield (Read the whole poem here)

The two little vases and the beach hut were found in a gift shop next to Blakeney Quay, and the windmills possibly came from the same shop many years earlier! The shells were collected on Norfolk beaches over the past years as well. 😀

I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden once again for her Monday meme. Do visit her to see her rich choice of flowers this week, as well as all the other vases linked in from around the world!

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Have a good week!