Thursday, 15 October 2015

Forgotten gardens remembered

I was looking for a photograph on my memory stick the other day when I came across a whole selection of photographs I've taken on my garden travels. For various reasons I never included them in blog posts. They are all nice images so that's why I never wanted to delete them. There's pretty flowers when I was concentrating on fruit and vegetables. Old tin watering cans and terracotta pots left to languish.
So I thought I would take this opportunity to let them see the light of day. I used to get annoyed at American television series which would have a cheap episode in which the characters sat around going, “Do you remember when...?” and it was a whole episode of flashback scenes we'd seen before. I prefer to take a more British attitude to it and here's some of the best bits which didn't make the original blog posts but I couldn't bear to leave on the cutting room floor or in this case the memory stick.
When we went to Elvaston Gardens last year I included a few snaps of some of the flowers there but concentrated on the kitchen garden aspects of it. For the flower lover it's a fabulous garden with many plants chosen for their abilities to attract bees and engage the senses. Any garden with a display of dahlias is always going to be a winner with me.
I don't know which dahlia I liked the most – the deep red one the colour of a fine wine or the one with the ripples which make me think of ice cream.
When I watch gardening programmes the advice when it comes to planting is not to be stingy with your display. Why have one plant when you can have 50? If you're in doubt take a look at these Japanese anemones.
Never underestimate the power of shock value in a garden. You can't fail to walk past the simple rudbeckia, also known as Black Eyed Susan, when it's in full bloom.
There's not just the old favourites at Elvaston. I do remember hearing something about this plant needing to be dug up each year to protect it from frost but apart from that I haven't a clue to what it is!
I can't believe I've never written a post about Belton House. The kids love the huge outdoors playground and we had a picnic while watching the local cricket team. The lawns at the top of this post are in front of the Orangery which is also jammed packed with more wonderful plants.
The estate at Belton is huge like many National Trust properties but don't miss nipping round the back of the Orangery for some more garden gems.
Regular readers of this blog will know how much I love going to Clumber Park. The Walled Kitchen Garden is amazing. The size of it means that there's always work that needs doing and for that you need the tools of the trade.
One of the features of Clumber Park is that it tries to stick to heritage varieties with its planting and the past is always on show. No plastic watering cans here!
At Clumber they have the National Collection of Rhubarb. You can plant it outside and wait for it to come up or you force it through the use of pots. If there's one thing Clumber has and that's a lot of pots! So that was just a selection from three gardens past. Only another three billion photos to sift through...



Mammsaurus HDYGG

7 comments:

  1. I like the rippled dahlia for the same reason as you - I was saying the other day that I hadn't had raspberry ripple ice cream in years! The old watering cans are nice to look at, must find one like that for the garden :)

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  2. what a great idea. love the title of this post and those dahlias!!

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  3. I have a whole heap of photos to do this with - something for me to do for HDYGG when it is cold and wintry. I really want to go to Clumber, sounds just my kind of place. Next year will be the year I grow lots of dahlias, love them so much but never have much luck - slugs always get them!

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  4. It's greta that you have shared these - I too have a stash of photos that are perfectly fine but for one reason or another were never used. Those watering cans are dreamy - I always end up taking just as many shots of watering cans and pots as I do of flowers.
    Dahlias are on my 'must grow' list for 2016, I love the idea of a cut flower patch - all I need is to get organised!
    Thanks for joining in again - and hooray on finding these gems un-used!

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  5. Oh I have total dahlia envy, and Clumber might just be the most perfect place name.
    I love find forgotten photos, thank you for sharing these, the colour pop is just what I need this rather gloomy day.

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  6. Ah pots and watering cans - heaven! :) That top picture looks a bit like Bicton Park in Devon where we went recently, uncannily like it in fact but clearly it's not there! #hdygg

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  7. i love the photos of the dahlia and the terracotta pots

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