Hurstpierpoint

This Sunday ten gardens in Hurstpierpoint Village opened for charity. I love visiting open gardens when there are lots on offer within a fairly short distance of each other. However, I was too busy with work to go this weekend, but my mum and dad went, and took the following snaps.



Looks like there were some very nice gardens to enjoy - hopefully I'll make it myself next year. In the meantime, thanks for the piccies Mum! xxx

A Garden fit for a King

I've been to Hampton Court Flower Show before, and I've seen Rufus Wainwright performing in the grounds, but I've never visited the Palace and gardens before - until yesterday. What an amazing place! Everything is on such a grand scale. The opulence of the interiors is breathtaking, but for me the real jewel in the crown is the garden. I think I picked the best time to visit, as the borders were looking magnificent.

The rose garden was at its peak, filling the air with the perfume of old-fashioned varieties.

 Alongside the palace is a 580 metre border - the longest in Britain. Stunning. It's crammed with foxgloves, Crambe, asters, campanula, sisyrinchium, alchemilla, achillea, the list goes on.

There are plenty of formal elements to the garden.

The border below comes as a bit of a shock after all this beauty, and it is not in the planning stages, it is meant to look like this. For growing below it are the roots of the Great Vine. At 229 years old, the vine has grown to a length of over 36.5 metres. Housed in a special building, it is kept behind glass, hence the blurry appearance on the photos.

The mighty trunk

Grapes ripening nicely



The vine has been trained back and forth to create a tapestry as impressive as those inside the palace!

The weather was great, and so was the cream tea, so a perfect day was had by us both. Thank you sis and family for a spot-on birthday gift!

Hey Good Lookin'

It's a shame I'm so busy at the moment to really enjoy my garden. So here are some photos of it from last weekend, and when I'm less busy at least I can look back on them!



Centaurea, Geranium 'Johnson's Blue', Aconitum, Erysimum and Kniphofia



Stipa Gigantea flowers emerging from the Island Bed.

Scabious peeking between Kniphofias and Cistus

Nigella begin to flower between Iris, with foxgloves and Lychnis coronaria in the background

A hardy geranium is backed by Nigella, Lychnis coronaria and a cistus

Pokers - I shouldn't love them but I do - my guilty pleasure!

One day a rose unfurls....

And the next it is fully open, enjoying the rain more than I

Jubilee Bowl

Went to the garden centre this morning, just for a coffee, and came away with this huge water feature! I've christened it the Jubilee Bowl in honour of Our Majesty! I just casually inquired about the price as there were no others in the shop, and the assistant returned with another chap who switched off the water feature ready to start clearing the bowl out! But what the heck, the price was good so I told him to carry on. Decided not to have the fountain feature with it, as I like the idea of a calm reflective pool. And I already had some hostas and ferns ready to group around it, plus a plant that I bought for the main pond but decided I didn't want to muck up the water. All it needs now is a few more pebbles around it and it's done. Not bad for about twenty minutes work - that has to be the easiest new feature I've ever installed!