Benmore Gardens 2009

[Lesley Cox]

Well yes, very big. Look at all those cranes and scaffolding.

Pity about the tearoom Tom. One will need to take one's own cake.

[TC]

Visited the gardens on Thursday 19th.  The following pictures were taken by Cindy on her coolpix camera and I think they are better than mine.  I had been looking on the grand scale whereas she had been taking close-ups.  They look better on the monitor.  The detail in my pictures is lost because they need to be shown on a large scale.  I posted these already but I got an error message because one was in gif. format -  unnacceptable for the forum.
The second flower is floccigerum

[Maggi Young]

Cracking pictures from Cindy! Thank you, Cindy for this treat..... hard to believe all these plants are flowering down there right now.  

[Lesley Cox]

No frosts then on the weest coast at present.

[TC]

The frosts and snow came about two weeks ago and cut the flowers from a Rh. hookeri which was covered in bloom after non -flowering last year.
Sudden oak death has now got into the garden and a large area of rhododendrons has been cleared and burned.  This can be seen in the picture of the hillside.  When we were there, it was more like Autumn with smoke from burning plants everywhere.  Some of the pictures look a bit "dotty" in size and do not give a proper idea of the size of some of these specimens.  I had to use a wide angle lens to get the plants in as I could not walk back far enough without falling down the hillside.
Rh. praestans
Garden entrance
Hills from the high road --these are 450 metres or nearly 1500 feet.  We are about 450 feet up at this point
Benmore hillside
Benmore low road
Coordinated colours
Rh. barbatum
Rh.faucium
Rh oreodoxa
Rh. arboreum

[TC]

Next batch
Rh. eclecteum
Rh. luteiflorum
Rh. meddianum atrokermesinum
Rh. montroseanum truss
Rh. nobleanum grex "Album"
Rh. planetum
Rh. batemanii
Rh. dauricum
Rh. griffithianum x praevernum
Rh. meddianum var.

[TC]

Last batch
Rh Sino grande
Rh. monstroseanum
Rh. praestans
Rh. racemosum
Rh. thomsonii var thomsonii

[Lvandelft]

Super series of Benmore again Tom!
Almost no Rhodo's in the area where I live and if, probably R. dauricum the only
which might show some color this early.
Thanks for showing something totally different of what we see in our area.

[Paddy Tobin]

Tom, Great garden, great rhododendrons, well photographed for our entertainment.

Many thanks, Paddy

[David Nicholson]

Lovely pictures Tom (and Cindy) thanks for posting them.

[TC]

Thanks for your comments,however, when I checked out the postings of the pictures, most of them seemed bleached out.  I went back to the original files and they looked OK.  The pictures were posted using Firefox and Windows XP after processing in Adobe CS2.  It then dawned on me that I was now looking at the website on Vista.  For some reason when using Vista the colour and brightness are not the same as when using XP.  Another little computer glitch to work on !  As an experiment I am going to post some pictures I took at Culzean Castle gardens on the 10 March to see if they come out better.  I know that the exposure on these is spot-on

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Brilliant pictures of a stunning garden Tom and Cindy.

Thanks very much for taking us along on your walk !
(and plse do so again...  )

[TC]

We paid another visit on the 20th and were fortunate with what was the warmest day of the year so far  - 19c.  First a visit to the restaurant and then up to the gallery to see a photographic exhibition.  Wine and nibbles were being served.  I was asked if I would like a small libation of red wine, to which I declined politely and said that I wanted a large one, which was duly forthcoming.  If my English seems strange it is because Cindy is watching Pride and Prejudice next door on the TV and the sound is carrying through to me !  We had an update of the garden from Peter Baxter and set off up the hill. About 3½ hours later we came back down the main path with my left knee in terminal decline.  The garden certainly is having a good flowering year with a lot of azaleas and rhododendrons still to bloom.  A few pictures at random.  I have had enough of photoshop and computers for the night.

Fallen blooms
Rh and maple
Rh. truss
Macabeanum x sino grande truss
Rh. morii
morii flowers
"barbatum species"
Rh.rubiginosum
Rh.xanthocodum
Rh.cinnabarinum

[TC]

Two more
Possibly roylei but I have forgotten
Veysii

[TC]

Some more with and without names !