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.