rosrs – Gardens. Travel. Life.

We had our first visitor to the new house this weekend. Which was exciting. You know that feeling where you love something and hope others do too. Well that.
The joy of being here in Spain is the opportunity to look at new and different gardens. To look out for new ideas and new plants to weave into our new Mediterranean garden. It’s a huge learning curve and one where after only theee months I have lost a few plants on the way. The ground is hard. The climate harsh this summer. Hot. Dry. My visits here scattered.

So with our first visitor we headed off to the Alhambra We had been 18 months ago in April 2016 but it’s a stunning visit and one I will not tire of. Not yet anyway. An easy 1.5 hour drive away. The Alhambra is a series of buildings with the Nasrid palace the glittering jewel in the crown. One where you have an allotted time to visit.

The gardens when we were there in April were nice. I hate that word. Nice. It kind of means bland. Nice. So I was interested to see the summer planting. The colours. The smells, but slightly worried with this years extreme heat we may have missed it.

Tickets for the Alhambra are always sold out. There is no point deciding on the day to go visit. You need to plan. Your tickets. The entry time to the Nasrid Palace. Plan your trip. Thankfully we had. Tickets booked in May. The route planned with the assistance of my good friend Sally. Sally sat nag. We are rubbish as map readers so are happy to be dominated by the Tom Tom.

Water is a bit of a luxury here in Spain especially during the summer months. So I was surprised to see the gardens being heavily watered. At 10am. By watered. I mean Watered. Heavily. But when you walk around the vast and varied garden you can tell I’m not watering enough in mine. Even for drought tolerant plants. This years heat has been brutal.

But I have to say the planting is simply gorgeous. Stunning in parts. Colourful. Interesting. Plants I knew. Ones I haven’t seen in years. Simple. Interesting. A few I have to revert to Twitter for help in identifying. The planting so colourful that it reminds me of my parents front borders of the 1970’s.

There is structure. Carefully cut and structured hedging. Labelled. Please do not touch the plants. It’s yew. It’s poisonous. Something I’ve found a lot of the plants here are.

I was surprised to see roses. I don’t really know why – but I’ve been Surprised to see many things in the gardens here. Hollyhocks for one.

There has been an absolute stunner of a rose growing over the gates of the house opposite us. A gorgeous red. So full of bloom I had to go and check it was real. It was. This yellow rose in the formal structured beds was a stunner. I thought too yellow for Graham Thomas. But a beautiful rose dotted about over the gardens. There were a lot of standards. Giving height. Structure. Colour at eye level.

I haven’t seen Alyssum since it was planted down my parents front path in the 1970’s. Like lobelia a staple in gardens years ago – , which I have in window Boxes for the first time in years this year and has grown and looks well ,but like Alyssum seems to have fallen out of fashion for more blousy plan more unusual plants for the borders and window boxes. It was the standard bedding plant back in “the old days” along with lobelia, tagetes ,petunias, godetia, busy lizzies and begonias. Oh and red bedding salvias . Most of which were to be found in beds across the Alhambra. To be honest – it was a delight to see old friends.

The line for the Nasrid palace queues alongside some lovely beds. I love the orange colours in the garden but hate the smell of tagetes when you handle them. In a mass planting the orange of these are uplifting. Dotted under standard roses.

wqWe came across this gorgeous plant. Planted as a mass in some beds whilst in others there were splashes of colour and in some more a riot of colour. An explosion. After a shout of ‘help’ on twitter it was identified as an euphorbia- euphoebia marginata Kilimanjaro. Thank you twitter folk.

They certainly know how to do colourful with their planting. More an explosion than planting. But it’s stunning. There were also beds of dahlias, statice and all manner of things. Salvias a plenty. What looked like a form of knautia.

Someone has been kept busy. The shape size and scale of some of the topiary was awesome. I have trouble trimming our hedges and I know if I tried to shape them I’d end up with such ugly shapes. Yep. I know. A bit like me!

It wasn’t all colour. The agapanthus in huge drifts at the entrance were going over. Flower heads turning into big fat seed heads. I think I’ve taken enough photos of aggies this year. There were some tall architectural trees. But an abcence of succulents unless I was too mesmerised with the colours that I missed them.

You can’t help but be in awe of the buildings here. The intricate craftsmanship of the decoration in the marble the woodwork and the history.

But the gardens are a surprise. A welcome place to wander and reflect the majesty of the palaces.

A reminder to me of the blaze of colour I grew up with in my parents borders – the planting of annuals where the concept of less is more was rarely understood. But it set me up for the love of colour. Of gardens and gardenning.

I can’t wait to go back again in the spring and to see what the bedding has been replaced with. I hope bulbs. Lots of them.

Hurrah. Hurrah. The first of this years Rare Plant Fairs was a local one for me – held at the The Bishops Palace Wells in glorious surroundings and in a part of the Cathedral I’d only visited for the Wells Festival of Literature . In the dark. So I didn’t know what to expect! Why hadn’t I been before…

Surprisingly for me I didn’t take too many pictures of the stands – I was too busy looking at the plants!

Glorious hellebores did take my eye though. I have very few in the garden here in Somerset. I don’t know why really – to be honest there are some stunning plants out there.

These fritillaries really did get my attention. A house close to ours had a spectacular display two years ago but they seem to have disappeared. These were such strong large and beautiful plants that I was tempted. But I resisted. For now anyway.

I did manage to buy plants. No big surprise there then. After some huge indecision on my part – returns to stands more than twice I had decided on two roses – some foxgloves – and a monarda Jacob Cline I had been looking for. Added to that a selection of herbs – some strawberry mint – which I had never seen before which will be good in pimms! I was tempted with so much more as there was a great selection. But I had that voice ( Ian ) saying do you really need that. You can tell he’s not a Gardner. When did need enter into anything when plants or seeds are involved.

The admission price of the fair ( discounted by £1 for RHS members ( remembered my card for once) also included access into both the garden and into the Bishops Palace Itself.

At the fair end of the stalls stood a magnificant Magnolia which was stunning in its size and shape and flowers. Too big for my garden that’s for sure but pretty magnificant.

It was heartening to see such a busy fair and to run into a few familiar faces and put faces to twitter handles – folk who I follow but haven’t met before.

The gardens and surroundings are stunning and very varied – we only saw a fraction of it to be fair. ( no pun intended) There are 14 acres of gardens so it’s not surprising we didn’t get to see it all! But we will be back.

The community garden is an interesting space where volunteers can learn new skills. Looks a lot like allotments!

Euphorbia is stunning against the ruined walls in the East Garden – and looked magnificent. . We had some stunners in our garden when we moved in but where have they gone now I asked myself. ( reminder – you didn’t like them 20 years ago so you probably pulled them!)

The daffodils were out in force all around the gardens – except the formal garden – shame it’s not replicated in mine. I planted I don’t know how many Pheasants eye last year but none have appeared. I know not why! I know I was late planting and I don’t think I planted them upside down!

The banks of the moat were planted with colour and the famous swans were doing their bit for the tourists. Introduced in 1870 they were taught to ring a bell for food which they still so today. Somehow it won’t work for me at home.

The garden is interesting not just with plants. The buildings – the walls – the remnants of the great hall – the history.

I shall certainly be back if only to see the Dahlias in the hotbeds. As you’d expect in these surroundings the beds are planted with Bishops. Not your actual Bishops but those of the Dahlia varieties.

As well as the gardens we got to amble inside the BIshops Palace and the chapel. Well worth a visit.

What more could you ask for. A plant fair. Plants. A good walk around a lovely garden.

There are more Rare Plant fairs scheduled for the rest of the year – take a look at the schedule on Rare Plant Fairs – do go. You may buy a plant or two. Or three.

Gardens. Travel. Life.

Tag: rosrs

I don’t mind if I do. A trip to the Alhambra Palace & gardens

The Bishops Palace Wells Rare Plant Fair