Spring Flowers
Bodnant Gardens, Wales, In Spring Haute Couture
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). Continue reading “Bodnant Gardens, Wales, In Spring Haute Couture”
Dunham Massey in March
My last visit to Dunham Massey was in winter, when the snowdrops were at their height. This time I didn’t take a single picture of snowdrops: they had either gone to seed or were looking bedraggled. A few early camellias were in bloom, but there are far more still at the tight bud stage. Continue reading “Dunham Massey in March”
A Quirky Daffodil Brings Back Memories
Whether you’ll love or hate this daffodil depends on your perspective. It’s another curiosity I spotted growing in the Bridgemere Nursery display gardens (like this black primula for those who missed it). Continue reading “A Quirky Daffodil Brings Back Memories”
Brent and Becky’s Bulbs: a private tour
It may seem unseasonal to post pictures of daffodils in the autumn, but far from it: if you live in the northern hemisphere, this is a great time to plant bulbs for flowers next spring. Meanwhile, the gardens of my Australian blogging buddies seem to be full of life all of a sudden, so I imagine it’s daffodil season there.
Either way, I’d only need the flimsiest of excuses to belatedly share pictures from our visit to Brent and Becky Heath, including some taken in their private garden, trial grounds and growing fields. I’m not a daffodil expert so please don’t ask me for their names!
Weekly photo challenge: dawn daffodils
It was suggested that the most appropriate image for this week’s photo challenge: early bird would be a shot of the tousled hair I’m sorrowfully sporting most mornings when I awake, but I decided to spare you that.
Instead, here are some rain-soaked daffodils: a lovely cultivar I haven’t seen before with flowers in soft shades of cream and white. I was so excited to have the chance to enjoy a behind-the-scenes visit to this historic bulb nursery when the plants were at the peak of flowering that I was hopping amongst the daffodils before the sun had fully risen. Continue reading “Weekly photo challenge: dawn daffodils”
Susan Rushton 