Botanica 2

Dear All,

Catching up. No Internet cafes open after tea last night. We had a lovely walk around Bath but no joy as regards blogging. £7 an hour at the Hilton! This morning have travelled to Dorset to Hestercombe gardens and returned via rustic roads through Street and hippy Glastonbury. We are back in Bath. Roger is resting before tea so catch up time for blog.
On our second day, last Thursday we visited Wakehurst Place gardens, an adjunct of Kew Royal Botanic gardens. These are vast gardens creating remarkable landscapes with gigantic deciduous trees so much older than those in Australia. They have numerous walks through out the gardens and wooded areas. The Iris pond was spectacular. This area appeared a wilderness of colour and foliage. We came to an area where several wisterias had been trained to form a canopy like a giant market umbrella. We have since seen this used in several places. Around the huge manor house there were herbaceous borders combined with a variety of roses. Climbing roses on beautiful old walls have been a feature of most gardens. There was also a formal
walled garden with a colourful array of very healthy plants that are so much taller than their counterparts in Australia. We lunched in the stables that had been converted into a pleasant restaurant and we enjoyed the sit. These gardens are also the home of the Millennium Seed Bank housed in a very modern building with laboratories on view and photographs and sculptures inspired by seeds. The seed bank
aims safeguard 24,000 plant species by 2010. At the front of this building was a series of plantings showing the diverse plant groups from particular habitats in UK.
After this visit we ventured closer to home to the Romantic garden of Scotney Castle. The beautiful house,(not a real castle) was open to the public. It was as if the owner had just gone out for the day although she had died a couple of years ago and the property is now owned by the National Trust. The title castle refers to the ruined building beyond the house and gardened quarry which had been the source of stone for the building. A father and son had both died from lead poisoning so this
castle was abandoned by the rest of the Hussey family to become the beautiful folly it is now. This garden was such an oasis on a hot day. The planting in the ruin of the castle were stunning. There were many glorious vistas and serpentine lines throughout and it was a place of great serenity. We returned to our grand hotel - the best of the tour at about 4.00pm. I was let off at The Pantiles where I had seen a camera shop. I had filled my memory card! Ended up buying a new one with far more
capacity. I also had my first made into a Cd so we now have a spare card for the future. The Pantiles is a very attractive shopping area and while I was waiting for the Cd had a quick look around saw the Gallery that Caroline had mentioned in London but it was closed. I was thrilled to have my camera ready to go and the shop keeper was so helpful. Walked up a steep hill to our hotel but the area beside the road was very wooded and it was interesting to see the natural vegetation. We were bussed out for tea at a charming Italian restaurant at High Rocks which gave us another experience of the area. We slept like logs in our huge bed as did the others. Day three we headed to Hever Castle,13th century moated castle which was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. In the early 20th century it was bought by the Astor family. They made substantial renovations to restore the house and garden including constructing a huge lake. There are over thirty acres of formal gardens including many Greek and Roman treasures such as giant columns and sculptures. The vista through the colonnade at the Lake is very beautiful and the rose garden is just an abundance of colour and perfume. Parts of the castle have been renovated during the Astor residency and these are beautiful homely rooms though no longer authentic to the time they were built. Astor also built a mock Tudor village behind the castle for additional accommodation. This was tastefully done but to me the newly constructed octagonal structures that formed the shops and restaurant ruined the vista of the castle from the entrance from the bus park. After lunch we headed to Sissinghust,the famous garden created by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson. We first viewed this garden from great height by climbing the tower past her study to the top. These stunning views clearly revealed the formal elements. The warm garden in particular looked fabulous from here contrasted with the dark trimmed cypress trees and hedges. There was an exhibition of a couple of artists' paintings of the garden or study and it was mentioned that this was part of a National Trust
scheme for contemporary artists to depict historic homes and gardens. On the way out I showed a Trust worker my paintings of Cloudehill - unfortunately her boss wasn't around but she took details and I will look into it further when I return. Perhaps this could be the focus of the next trip! I loved this garden it was so lushly planted. I couldn't get over the huge light greyish thistles that added so much contrast- these would probably turn to weeds in Australia. I loved the coloured rooms more than the famous white one and find it hard to relate to the meadows which
mostly look like a pile of weeds- imagine the snakes in all this long grass in Australia.We returned back to Tunbridge Wells for another beautiful meal in grand style. This was our last night so packing was our next task.
On our way to Oxford we visited another garden connected to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Wisley is a huge garden- 250 acres. The first area of interest was the very formal rectangular water garden with colourful waterlilies enhanced by the paving and the grand building. Everything was on such a large scale. The herbaceous borders were huge. There were sections of vegetable and herb gardens, orchards, hot houses, meadows, trial gardens, garden designs and much more. It was a special berry weekend so we were distracted to sample a range of different fruit. The hot houses were newly constructed and gigantic. Inside tropical plants cascaded like curtains and although it was most impressive I feel it will improve even more with time. Beyond the hot house was the first beautiful meadow I have seen - it was so colourful and although many plants were weeds this didn't seem to matter. This was the only garden we did on this day. We arrived at Oxford and settled into our much smaller room- similar to our cheaper Henley House in Earl's Court (though this one had a bath). There was not much room to hang washing or deal with cases. Afterward we did a walk with Sara, our very knowledgeable guide. Our dinner was excellent and the restaurant
was very attractive as well. Sunday we had a later start as Blenheim Palace didn't open early. So after our buffet breakfast I walked around the nearby Botanical gardens and discovered a street that was closed for a festival. Unfortunately I did not get back to explore. Blenheim Palace was more a landscape than a garden and had the qualities of created vistas of lakes and trees associated with Capability Brown. The size of the trees and the vast scale of views are set off by the magnificent palace that trace the significance of The Churchill/Spencer families over the years. I was interested to see Winston Churchill's paintings- he was very skillful and his many studies were freely executed. Everything is so lavish and differing rooms were furnished in particular colour schemes with the furnishings echoing the colours of the walls. The library is the most impressive room. It overlooks the Italian water garden and houses a most decorative large organ as well as thousands of books on different levels. Roger was really fascinated with this palace and spent much time chatting with the guides and telling of his links with the Spencers. We returned to Oxford for a free afternoon but this will have to be finished at my next blogging session as I am meeting the others for tea. Tonight we are not catered for so will have to make decisions.
Cheers
Jo and Rog