It may not be the first English garden you’d associate with a Palm House, but Sefton Park has one of the prettiest. These tiered buildings hark back to times when palm trees were enough of a curiosity to justify building a magnificent structure to keep palms alive through our winters.
Our most famous Palm House is at Kew where immaculate bedding plants in shaped island beds layer on the traditional effect.
Bodnant Garden, in Wales, has a dinky version, not open to the public. More of a conservatory, perhaps they’d say.
Before I move on from Palm Houses, I should explain that the reason for today’s garden gallery is Anne Sandler’s Lens-Artists Challenge: Buildings and Other Structures, although I may not be approaching it in exactly the right spirit.
Greenhouses have to share their limelight when I take pictures.
You’d think a giant, cylinder-shaped glasshouse would have been enough to command my full attention, but I remember being entranced by waving ornamental grasses. Luckily, a picture can do more than one thing – and if your eye can stay tethered to the glasshouses, well done to you. Here are some to experiment with:
The greenhouses above and below are at flower shows, so canny greenhouse marketing teams have laid out plants to lure us toward their products, as if we were human bees. It worked for me, though I have neither room nor budget to be a target customer.
I’ll leave you with this, just to show I can do it, once every five years or so.
Susan Rushton 
Loved seeing all the greenhouses/glasshouses. It is my dream to have one someday.
My fingers are crossed for you!
Kew Garden’s was one of our favourite places to visit when we lived in the UK!
There’s always lots to see at Kew.
I’d say yours was definitely the right spirit
Thanks, Derrick.
Have you taken any architectural-type photographs of these glasshouses in their own right, say from inside looking up to emphasize the geometry?
I have taken the odd one, but my eye naturally goes to the plants.
Your predilections plant you firmly in the botanical world.
Well. My Liverpudlian husband has never taken me here. Shame on him!
I hadn’t been until a couple of years ago.
Great choice for the challenge Susan – definitely in the spirit of the challenge! You must visit Ann-Christine’s post to see the glass house she has in her garden, it’s amazing! Loved your choices for the week, very creative and beautifully captured.
Thank you, Tina.
Yay! I’ve been to Scampston Hall 🤣 My favourite shot is your opener, but The Vinery looks beautiful too. 🤗💜
Arley Hall is well worth a visit, although I much prefer the garden to the glasshouse. 🙂
I love glasshouses / conservatories / orangeries! The Sefton Park one looks amazing and I really like the
grasscylindrical one. The one that stands out for me from those I have visited is the Botanic Garden of Wales where the glasshouse is one curved roof.I haven’t been there, although I’d love to visit. It’s a little out of the way from where I am.
Susan, these wonderful structures are definitely within the scope of this challenge. I loved their beauty in and out. Well done!
Thanks, Anne.
What stood out for me was the kitchen garden, love that concept and especially when part of a walled garden. Glasshouses don’t seem to be as popular now and the glass is being replaced with cheaper materials. Lovely images.
I wonder if there is less focus on growing what really doesn’t want to grow in our climate than there once was.
But don’t these have to be seen in the context of their grasses and roses and daisies and all? It’s the whole of it that astounds. I love all of it, but I am sinfully covetous of that garden with the deep purple iris and what appears to be white roses that start out as pink buds. At the risk of being too subtle, I think that image from East Ruston Old Vicarage belongs in Dan’s Door Challenge next year. Wonderful images — what an escape from the ordinary. Thank you!
Sorry for the very late reply! The white roses are actually peonies – very alluring ones.
What a delightful post. Thanks, Susan, for a smile to start my day.
My pleasure, Pat.