Snowdrop Gardens visited during 2008

[art600]

Brian

When you cannot get to see these gardens it is great to have forum members taking time to share their experiences.

[David Nicholson]

Thanks to John and Brian for a tremendous set of pictures.

[Brian Ellis]

When you cannot get to see these gardens it is great to have forum members taking time to share their experiences.

I am sure Arthur, that John is as happy as I to share our visits, especially with those members of the forum interested in snowdrops and who are too far away to visit themselves.  I was particularly aware that there might be interest in the Greatorex 'garden' which is not generally open to the public, and hopefully complements Richards article.

[Maggi Young]

When you cannot get to see these gardens it is great to have forum members taking time to share their experiences.

As someone who will never visit these places, it is a HUGE delight to be able to share through these virtual visits... my grateful thanks to all of you for taking the time to prepare these displays for us.

[KentGardener]

Saturday Part One:

Hopefully I haven’t bored you too much with my 2008 Galanthus ‘Blog’.

Saturday morning found me being ‘Mr Unpopular’ and waking the driver at 6am… AGAIN… (don’t worry, he made up for it and stayed in bed until 11am on Sunday!).  Today’s destination was Hampshire – a quick whiz round the M25, a 10 minute tea break in the woodland cafe opposite RHS Wisley, and then down the A3 to Petersfield.  We were starting the day by visiting my friend, Tim Brock, who is waiting to hear if he has received National Plant Collection status for his garden full of Asplenium Scolopendrium varieties.

From Petersfield it was an easy 20 minute drive to Alresford, and the home of Michael Baron, our main port of call.  Michael has the UK NCCPG National Plant Collection of Galanthus in his 1 acre garden located in the centre of town!  (So lucky!)  We were attending one of Brandy Mount House’s three public open days during February.

(Do you recognise the building from Mark’s mysterious photograph in the Galanthus thread?  The building no longer has the large greenhouse/conservatory on the back as that was removed a few years ago)






(A quick one for the non galanthophiles)




(what’s that down there?)


 

The garden has a good rich soil laying on a chalk base so dries out quickly in the Summer, making it ideally suited to growing bulbs.  There were many large clumps of snowdrops in almost every bed and border.  Michael has also set a few other areas of his garden aside especially for Galanthus.  In the vicinity of his vegetable patch there is a rather nice raised bed with open sided glass cold frame for growing new acquisitions away from the main collection.  This bed has specially mixed soil and the snowdrops are planted spaced out with other alpines in between.  The idea is to try and make less of a meal for the dreaded narcissus fly, that have munched their way through some nice plants in recent years, and also to study the snowdrops garden worthiness.  It was here that I found myself taking the most photographs.


(Mordred)






(Margery Fish)




(Sharlockii Selina Cords)




There is a raised bed of sand in another part of the garden that all brand new plants are placed in until Michael is certain that he will not be introducing any infections into his collection.

We were very fortunate in that Michael was willing to spend quite a bit of his time giving us a tour of his favourite plants and sharing some of his experiences on the subject of Galanthus. 

(Kentgardener, Michael Baron, and Tim Brock)




(Going in for a close-up photo)



Upon leaving Brandy Mount we returned to Petersfield for a spot of home cooking (a rather yummy rustic vegetable stew served with a couscous, pine nut and rocket salad, and fresh olive and garlic bread (I am salivating just from the memory!)) before we headed out for a long walk where we encountered a surprising number of snowdrops!

……….to be continued…………

[KentGardener]

Some more random photographs taken at Brandy Mount before I continue with the rest of our Saturday:

(Dodo Norton)




(Big Boy)




(Bushmills)




(Curly)




(Green tipped woronowii)




(Little Drip)




(Moya's Green - the photo doesn't show how lovely the lime green colour was)




(Trym)




(Trymlet)




(South Hayes)




John

[KentGardener]

and just a few more:

(deserving a closer inspection by John and Tim)




(a few clumps that I didn't write the names down)








(SilverWells)




(Primrose Warburg)




(you've heard of 'Grumpy' - I think these should be called 'Sad' - especially the one on the right!)




(and the biggest surprise of Brandy Mount - Frog spawning already!)




John

[Rob]

Great post John, thanks for all these garden visits

[Jane]

Hi John, fantastic photos again! You really are getting round these gardens, I'm most put out that I live so far away!

[art600]

John

Thanks again for another set of magnificent photos.  Maybe next year I will get a chance to visit Brandy Mount

[David Nicholson]

Spot on John

[KentGardener]

Saturday Part Two:

We needed to walk off our substantial lunch, so decided to start the afternoon with a visit the local ‘arts and crafts’ church (hence the prayer cushions in the other thread - sorry David, I didn't think to say one for you - but will definitely do so if I return).  This is a lovely little building that has a wood shingle clad spire.




In total we visited three churches on Saturday afternoon and I shall not give too many details here, but instead shall just post some pictures from the enjoyable 3 hours spent wandering among the gravestones.  (truth to tell; I think I have spent long enough struggling over what to type in the last week – there will be one more part to my Saturday Blog, but that may well be the last for this year… unless there is renewed interest in hearing more?…..)

(Sunny Day = Happy Bee!)




(Church Wall Base)




(snowdrops on grave)




(gentle slope)




(speading snowdrops)




(Simple Cross)




John

....to be continued...
 

[KentGardener]

Saturday Part Three:

The day ended with a visit to possibly the most wonderful and serene spot in Hampshire.  It is a place that you would never stumble across by accident, a simple monastery located way up a narrow lane.  The monks own most of a large hill covering many many acres complete with fields, outbuildings, rivers, waterfall, a lake and of course snowdrops!  We were lucky in that my friend attends mediation classes so we were allowed to wander the grounds.

(The building)






(an outside prayer area - with my driver in the orange jacket!)




(a close-up of 1 of 4 doors in the above marble sculpture)




(a large Buddha surrounded by snowdrops)




(an open area)




(Tim and John searching for anything different)




(a small personal shrine)




(a large bronze Buddha)




(birch tree and sleeping sculpture)




John

[KentGardener]

the last few from the monastery:

(ducks flying over the Monk's lake at dusk  (or is that geese?....))




(Stunning tree roots)



(Blechnum)




(Tim Brock:  has he found something new?...)




and there finishes our weekend visits.

Tomorrow is a visit to the RHS February show in London (I have taken pictures there before and they usualy turn out rubbish - I think it is the lack of light inside versus my camera flash).  Next weekend I am hoping that I may visit a private collection located in the suburbs of London.  I don't intend to post unless there is an appetite for my continued ramblings?....

regards

John

[Jane]

John, keep posting it's very interesting for those of us who can't get out there as much as we would like!!!
I'm going to try and take some pictures at the RHS tomorrow as well!