This year it’s too easy for gardens to be on trend, the Pantone colour of the year being Greenery. Well… yes, I’ll go with that, but if Pantone’s colour trend experts think greenery is the colour for 2017, perhaps they should get out more. Hardly a passing trend, greenery should be named the colour of the millennium (in the hope it might, by some miracle, be the millennium to come, not the one we’ve recently left behind).
Bodnant Gardens, where these pictures were taken, had acknowledged the colour of the year with a knowing wink, but decided greenery was just the start. It was a great start – no one could deny that – but the surrounding countryside had got greenery off to a T too. So much so that after finally leaving the North Wales Expressway (an optimistic name on a very sunny Sunday) I found myself winding towards the National Trust garden along Llanrwst Road thinking “This land is such a bright green, it’s almost too much. How will the camera lens cope with this? Are my sunglasses not on?” (they were).
Inside the garden spring had sprung. Not content with greenery, the garden was adrip with flowers, as if it had taken a look at the colour palettes on the Pantone website and had decided to Rev It Up.
If Bodnant was a supermodel, daffodils and blossom would be on the cover of every newspaper and fashion magazine. My iPhone was struggling with the brightness, so you may find it difficult to make out the amount of blossom on the tree in the picture above. But this wasn’t a day to wish for a heavy DSLR plus lens and a neutral density filter – it was made for roaming around by the rivers and waterfalls, climbing paths marked ‘steep’ and exploring as much of the garden as you could squeeze in.
I’m concentrating on the daffs and the blossom in the hope that someone reading this post will be tempted and able to go and see the garden while all this beauty is on offer. I know the garden wisely provides visitors with so many other riches at various times of the year – the famous laburnum arch and the rose garden being not the least – but in future, when I think of the essence of spring, my thoughts will turn to Bodnant.
I tried to get a decent picture of the magnificent tree in full bloom you see below, despite the bright sunlight, but can’t say I’m happy with the results. I’m including it anyway as it’s a sight I never want to forget. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we each had one of these in our neighbourhood?
I’d have liked to linger till the garden closed, particularly as the light was showing signs of softening off, but something was calling me: one of my Mother’s excellent dinners was on offer just over 100 miles away. So I had to dash. Life-enhancing as they are, no one can live by daffodils and blossom alone.
Bodnant Gardens contact details
Address: Bodnant Gardens, Bodnant Road, Tal-y-cafyn, Conwy, North Wales LL28 5RE
Website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/bodnant-garden
Overseas visitors with a love of historic properties and gardens may be able to save money with a National Trust touring pass (check out the details online). National Trust and members of the Royal Oak Foundation have free entry.
Susan Rushton 
Your phrase “all swoony” comes to mind. Except I can’t swoon and jump up and down at the same time. Inside I’m jumping up and down. What tonic to my spirit, downtrodden and sodden as it is here in the eternal grey of Indiana. I love those twisty trees — I expect them to break out into song and dance any moment. All this and Mom’s cooking too? Now THAT’S a Sunday! Thank you for this uplift!
I don’t see your spirit as downtrodden too easily! You’re right – last Sunday was a treat in more ways than one.
That first flowering cherry is better than I managed in our garden yesterday 🙂
It was an unusually still day – you don’t realise how wildly flowers bounce on the wind until you have a camera in your hands!
So true 🙂
I love Bodnant Gardens – it was autumn when I visited, so lovely to see how the gardens look in springtime.
It’s one of those that really does have interest in every season – but then it’s a decent size, which helps.
Oh, my! Spring has on all her finery in Wales. (If only she did in Maine, too!) And hear, hear to green being the color of this millennium.
She’ll be heading your way before too long now, surely.
Spring comes very slowly to Maine. Sigh.
I’ve only been twice, most recently in 2015, but it is certainly a garden to visit again and again. There are just so many other wonderful places to see in Britain…I’ll never get to them all!
Marian – it always makes me smile that you see many more English gardens than I do. I look to your posts and check out your garden visit itineraries to find out where I should be going next! I think you’ll find Bodnant improved next time you’re there, even in just two or three years. One thing I did find funny was a display of yellow skunk cabbages in full bloom outside one of the cafes. The weather being so nice, people were enjoying refreshments alongside a distinctly whiffy border.
Your last image is stunning. Thanks for the visual break from the grey walls of my cubicle.
Thanks for the reassuring comment. I’m happy to have provided a little grey respite.
It is many years since we visited, it is one of the NT top gardens. Untill recently the same family had been head gardeners there for, I think, three generations. This continuity must add to its success.
We used to go as kids during our summer holidays, then there was a gap after that – for too long, I’d have to say! I agree with you that continuity really helps when it comes to gardening.
Wow! What an absolutely stunning place. Thank you for sharing it with us.
My pleasure!
Such a beautiful place, makes easier to think in poets and writers get inspired into fantasies for such a dreamy garden. : )
Gorgeous photos 🙂 I’ve been to Bodnant Gardens a few times and got some really good shots.
One garden I can recommend visiting, if you haven’t already been there, is Plas Cadnant Hidden Gardens near Menai Bridge on Anglesey. Go in late May/early June and the rhododendrons and azaleas are beautiful. Have a look at this post on my other blog for some of the pics I took last year –
http://tigermousetales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/sunday-may-29th-2016-part-1-early.html
I actually posted this comment previously but it’s gone to ‘moderation’ so you may not have seen it, although my comment on your next post was accepted – hope this one works 🙂
Hi Eunice – Any comments with links are held for moderation. I haven’t been to the garden you mention, but it looks lovely. My favourite place for rhododendrons and azaleas is the Dorothy Clive Garden. I was just thinking a visit there is just about due!