The RHS Malvern Spring Festival, is a great place for gardeners to find inspiration. Held on the Three Counties Showground it benefits from having the glorious backdrop of the Malvern Hills.Continue reading
RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2016
Category: Visits
Reviews of gardens, NGS open gardens, village open gardens, garden shows and festivals.
Snowdrops at Cerney House Gardens
I thought I would take a peek at the snowdrops at Cerney House Gardens, near Cirencester, in Gloucestershire this week – they have been flowering for weeks now and guessed they wouldn’t be around too much longer.
Easton Walled Gardens
Easton Walled Gardens are set in a beautiful valley in the heart of the Lincolnshire countryside, just south of Grantham. The 12 acres of gardens were abandoned in 1951 when Easton Hall house was demolished and they gradually became overgrown.
Continue readingAbbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, in Dorset which, because of a localised micro-climate, are filled with rare and exotic plants from all over the world.
Blenheim Palace: Secret Garden
This is the lush, tropical-looking secret garden at Blenheim Palace. It’s a few years since I last visited and the garden has matured rather well.
Rodmarton Manor
This is the balcony at Rodmarton Manor in Gloucestershire. The pretty pink climbing rose against the Cotswold stone makes it look so romantic. It’s not too difficult to imagine Romeo crying out “Juliet, Juliet, I’m here!”
Painswick Rococo Gardens
Set in a hidden Cotswold valley, Painswick Rococo Garden is home to one of the best snowdrop displays in Gloucestershire. It was originally the garden of Painswick House which was built in 1735 for Charles Hyett. He died in 1738 and it was his son Benjamin who created the garden in the Rococo style, which was the height of fashion at that time. Rococo gardens incorporated a mix of the formal garden style, mixed with natural landscapes and decorated with ornate follies, temples and other structures. A Rococo garden symbolised decadence and pleasure, a place where the aristocracy could show off and entertain their guests. The Rococo style did not last long and few gardens from the period survived intact.
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Croft Castle, Herefordshire
Croft Castle is located at Yarpole, near Leominster in Herefordshire, close to the Welsh border. It is owned by the National Trust, although members of the Croft family still have apartments there. For this reason we were not permitted to take photographs of the interior of the house, which I was disappointed about, since it does help to remind us of a particular place and whether we would like to return.
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Barnsley Village Garden Festival 2013
Barnsley is a small, unspoilt village in the heart of the Cotswolds, three miles from the Roman city of Cirencester, with around 160 inhabitants.
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