Spring is in the Air

A Update from our Head Gardener

After the continued winter weather the garden is about a month behind but spring is in the air. The swallows and House martins have returned. The soil is finally beginning to warm up. Seeds are starting to germinate. That means weeds too! Not just the usual native weeds but seedlings of the thuggish border plants, beautiful and delicate looking, but if you don’t get them under control they’ll take over your border, garden and potentially the world. I’m thinking Cephalaria gigantia, Angelica gigas, Echinops ritro, and Maclaya cordata. Anyone who owns any of these will know what I’m talking about. Stunningly beautiful in there own individual way but bullies in the border. Leave the seedlings too long and you’ll be battling with roots that fight back, capable of breaking any fork or spade.

There’s also the sowing and pricking out of seedlings in the glasshouses, and vegetable beds, growing from seed all the plants that fill the kitchen garden throughout its productive season and a lot more. The birch and hazel plant supports are still being woven to create the screens and supports for the climbing annuals and to hold the herbaceous perennials up in the torrents of rain and gusts of wind, if anything like the previous summer.

The early varieties of tulips are in flower with the rest soon to follow. The exachorda will soon be in bloom and the apples and pears are beginning to blossom. It’s all going to happen at once. The pears usually a month or at least 3 weeks ahead of the apples are this year looking like they’re going to blossom at the same time. The first ducklings have been seen leaping off the thatched hermitage roof into the sunken pool.

Watch Our Gardens Grow

With a Season Ticket you can visit the Gardens as often as you like from when we open on Saturday 23rd March right through to when the leaves change colour in late October.

You won't miss a thing, from the colourful display of tulips, the Magnolia walk, the Wisteria arch, the scent of the roses, through to the fruiting of our local heritage varieties of fruit trees. Enjoy!

The Gardens at Hampton Court

The Gardens at Hampton Court Herefordshire, recently completed, are one of the most ambitious garden creations of our time.

Original Victorian garden walls enclose stunning new flower gardens divided by canals, island pavilions and pleached avenues. The kitchen garden is an ornamental garden of fruit and vegetables. It is managed organically, supplying produce to the Orangery Restaurant for its seasonal menu.

There is a maze of a thousand yews with a gothic tower at its centre. Climb to the top for a panoramic view of the gardens or descend underground to a tunnel that leads to a waterfall in the sunken garden. Beautiful herbaceous borders stretch out from a one hundred and fifty year old wisteria tunnel that leads to vast lawns and ancient trees beside the castle. Beyond the lawns are riverside and woodland walks.

Adjoining the castle, in the grand conservatory designed by Joseph Paxton in 1846, is the Orangery Café. Here delicious lunches and teas can be enjoyed.

Complete your day out by visiting our beautiful Garden Bothy Gift Shop where you will find plants to remind you of your visit, garden ornamentals and most unusual gifts including Fair Trade and local crafts and all at reasonable prices!