Snowdrops & Cake! Benington Lordship - 20th Feb 2011

[emma T]

Thank you Richard for a fantastic day  .You must work very hard. I had a fantastic time.

Thanks also to John for being so generous with his spares. It was great to meet everyone.

[Gail]

Beautiful and fascinating garden, great company, gorgeous snowdrops and delicious cakes.  And we didn't even get rained on!  Thank you so much Richard for all your efforts and lovely to meet everyone.
And for those poor people who missed the event, a few more photos....

[kentish_lass]

What a great day today.  Many thankyou's first.  Richard - thankyou for organising a great day, the garden is a credit to you.  I don't know how you manage it all.

Thankyou Arthur for chauffering me around again - much appreciated.  John & Chris - thankyou for the lovely plants - I will treasure them (hopefully for years to come).  It was lovely to put faces to names on the forum and it was a pleasure to meet you all.

Here a few shots from today:-
Jennie

[angie]

Looks if you all had a great time. Thanks for sharing the fun with us. I presume there wasn't any left over cakes

Angie

[kentish_lass]

There actually was some left over cakes as there was so much to eat!  It was all delicious.  I would love to know who made the what I believe to be a carrot cake with a chocolate topping.....it was delicious and moist and I would love the recipe   I have a photo of it somewhere.

There is a long stretch of snowdrops at Benington Lordship that will soon turn blue with the Scillas and then turn white again with the Wild Garlic.  I hope Richard posts a photo when it turns blue - it must look beautiful.

Here are a few more photos....
Jennie

[RichardW]

some very nice pics  

Jennie, you can see the effect in the gallery images , it is just as impressive as the snowdrops.

http://www.beningtonlordship.co.uk/photogallery2.shtml

I presume there wasn't any left over cakes

not much, did bring some coffee & walnut cup cakes home (sorry Mark  ) but they'll go tomorrow in the tea room, if I don't eat them, I think I might have had enough cake today, but there's always breakfast 

[Brian Ellis]

Many thanks for the photos Chas, Gail and Jennie.  We were here a couple of years ago on the way to the Gala and there was a lot of snow on the ground so we couldn't see Richard's collection, but the grounds were super and Maggi may remember the picture of the stained glass window in the church porch.

[kentish_lass]

A few more photos - including the inside of the tea room.

There was an impressive patch of Rubus (not sure if it was cockburnianus) on the bank with its ghostly winter glow.  I tried to grow this years ago but it needs space and looks just perfect on the bank at Benington Lordship.  One of my favourite winter stems.

Jennie

[Paddy Tobin]

Richard,

Well done on organising such a day for forum members. It is obvious that they have enjoyed themselves, your company, the garden, the snowdrops and it seems the cakes very much - do they talk about anything else?

Perhaps, some day I may be able to visit and, if so, I am sure I will enjoy it very much.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Many thanks for the photos Chas, Gail and Jennie.  We were here a couple of years ago on the way to the Gala and there was a lot of snow on the ground so we couldn't see Richard's collection, but the grounds were super and Maggi may remember the picture of the stained glass window in the church porch.

Indeed I do remember, Brian... it is a very lovely window.... last photo in this post from February 15th , 2009.... http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3035.msg75627#msg75627

[Maggi Young]

Paddy, I echo your congratulations to Richard for organising this super day for Forum members- it was so kind of you and it has obviously been a tremendous success with them all and with their photos we are all able to join in.

If I might take the talk away from snowdrops and cake for a moment.... I know you grow a lot of hellebores at BL... and in seeing the most full of 'drops I can't help feeling that for anyone with enough space, it would be a terrific idea to plant hellebores on a sloping sided area, to replicate the moat, so that one could walk along a path and look up into the "faces" of the flowers - no space here for such a thing but it would be nice 

[RichardW]

Paddy,

I really enjoyed today & plan on doing it again, with a few tweaks, as with any first attempt at something new there's always things I can think of changing.

if anyone does want to come from further afield I'm more than happy to put someone up in my spare room, might have finished decorating by next year.... house is just across the road, I do have two insane Siamese cats & a mad dog  

Maggi,

years ago I donated quite a lot of unsold/spare Hellebores to a garden not far from here, already had some growing on head height banks & worked very well, think the garden has since changed hands but would be nice to know if it worked.

Jennie,

the Rubus does take over & it is "thinned" in the moat, we didn't walk down there but there's a much larger planting between the two ponds.

[emma T]

ha the picture of the cake i made has had a lot of views  it was good cake.

[RichardW]

couple of things from yesterday, someone was asking me about x valentinei but can't remember who, will have a few spares.

and my viradapice being tall, have masses so if anyone wants to add those to the list I made before you all left please let me know.

[Maggi Young]

ha the picture of the cake i made has had a lot of views   it was good cake.

A cake that LOOKS that good is always goingto be a GREAT cake, Emma...... a momentary pause for regret at cutting into it and spoiling the decoration.... but only momentary, I imagine  

 Tell me, were the different 'drops on it correctly identified by the assembled gang before they scoffed it?