A Nurserywoman’s Garden

We made the short journey southward into Powys, our neighbouring county across in Wales to visit the garden of plantswoman and nursery owner Claire Austin. We always enjoy the drive into Powys as the countryside in Shropshire merges into the countryside in mid-Wales.

We parked up in a hummocky field and took the rough driveway up to Claire’s oak-framed house with its formally structured front garden.

We really enjoyed the front borders full of healthy perennials as one would expect from someone who specialises in producing such plants which are sold through her massive online nursery.

We moved around the back passing these two on the way. The design here was much softer and the planting more varied in height and wider plant choice.

We expected to see such good irises included in the planting as iris and paeony are her specialist plants.

The Paeony Field and Iris Field were next up. Neither of us are fans of paeony and don’t grow them at home but we rare iris lovers. We did however have a quick look at the paeonies.

We moved through some other mixed borders as we went to look at the few remaining irises in bloom. We were a bit too late in the season to see them at their best.

We reached the collection of bearded irises and enjoyed the out of season blooms. Here is a small gallery of iris portraits.

We left the irises behind after giving them plenty of admiration and made our way back up to the house before making our way homeward.