Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

Great Dixter

We decided to end our tour with the garden we saw first in 2012, Great Dixter.  This time the season is solidly summer with the dahlias in crescendo.  

Barnsdale Gardens

 

Castle Howard Gardens

 

Scampston Hall and Gardens

Studley Royal - England

Studley Royal, this idyllic English garden was created in the first half of the 18th century in the scenic Yorkshire Skell river valley. The main approach to the house is a long allee of trees focused on the Ripon Cathedral almost 3 miles on the horizon. The formal part of the garden is isolated from the Palladian house that burned down in 1946 but a similar Palladian style stables remains on 800 acres parkland. The raised valley floor anchored a series of straight and curved canals controlled by numerous weirs. The center of the valley and garden is a series of Moon ponds, one full circle, one half circle and two crescent that may represent the waxing and waning of the Moon. The ponds are laid out in an asymmetrical form that echos the natural serpentine valley floor and is reminiscent of natural oxbow lakes. Clipped yew hedges separate the formal water & Parterre à l'Angloise from the planted native tree hillside. Steep and angular turf banks frame the valley floor. Here the light and wind play off the water surface and the tree canopy. Everywhere the sound of water.

Newby Hall and Gardens

Levens Hall Gardens

 

RHS Harlow Carr Gardens

 

Tatton Park Flower Show

 

Biddulph Grange Gardens

 

Trentham Estate Gardens

The Trentham Estate in Staffordshire is a formal garden set along the River Stoke.   Recently renovated from the designs of Piet Oudolf and Tom Stuart-Smith, this is a contemporary formal garden. 

The Victorian Garden in the front with the Italian Garden and lake beyond. 

Paris - France

 

Great Fosters Gardens

 

Stourhead Landscape Gardens

Broughton Grange Gardens

East Lambrook Manor Gardens

Hestercombe Gardens

Kiftsgate Court Gardens

 

Hidcote Manor Gardens

It was a cloudy day with intermittent rain. We had the place to ourselves.



Hidcote is a remarkable garden designed by Laurence Johnston. He was an American born in Paris in the late 19th century. His mother purchased this property for him in the hopes that he would become a farmer. He instead traveled the world and created this amazing 19 acre series of garden rooms. He never married, which had me asking the docents about his sexuality. I never got a definitive answer. Johnston was responsible for numerous plant introductions including Penstemon 'Hidcote Pink' which I planted last week in Glen Park.

The Courts Gardens

 

Iford Manor Gardens

 

Lacock Abbey and Historic Village

 

Rodmarton Manor Gardens

 

Westbury Court Gardens

Started back in the late 1600's, Westbury Court is the oldest style garden we will visit in July. The Dutch influence was strong in this period of Royal and religious turmoil in England. After looking to France for all things cultural, the Protestant state of the Holland became the importer of cultural ideas. Long straight lines, canals, rows of trees, topiary and hedges are Dutch elements introduced to the English garden at the end of the seventeenth century.



"Westbury Court, Gloucestershire, has the last remaining Dutch-style water garden in Britain. Dating from the 18th century, it is very simple and serene. Evergreen hedges, topiary and perfectly straight canals of still water calm the soul. All the plants, even those in the vegetable garden, are 18th-century varieties to tie in the water garden. Small but perfectly formed." -- From Gardens Illustrated magazine

Hampton Court Flower Show

Tintinhull House Gardens

Lytes Cary Manor

Barrington Court Gardens

 

Montacute House Gardens

 

Kilver Court Gardens

Kilver Court in Shipton Mallet, attached not to a great country house but to a designer outlet mall.   A beautiful mall, not like something you see off the interstate in the US, but a cute collection of clothing stores, cafe, restaurant, nursery in a collection of stone buildings.   

Dyrham Park

Garden Museum and Bits of London