We drove out to Bridgemere to visit the show gardens once again under another blue sky. As usual we started our wanderings at the cottage garden where we found this group of white tulips displayed in a wheelbarrow. Close by this circle of box hedging was filled with red and white tulips.
We stopped next at the pond which until now had no plants giving a display, but now it seems to have come back to life. Kingcups gave bright splashes of gold. One thing a photo cannot do is let you appreciate the wonderful sounds of water on the move.
We found another raised bed close by full of tulips with just two different, delicate colours, ice cream colours really.
It was so heartening to see fresh new foliage bursting from their buds. This acer had bright new leaves drooping downwards with flower buds hanging below in contrasting reds. A feature of springtime is the sight of ferns unfurling in typical crozier patterns.
Daffodils featured in last months post about the show gardens and they are still going strong, but they are well outnumbered by tulips which featured in many different areas of the garden.
This garden is totally dominated by sheets of tulips between hedges of box, creating very dramatic pictures. This garden is on a gentle slope giving much better views of the tulip collections.
In contrast to tulips bergenias are never considered to be a feature of spring gardens but here at Bridgemere there were quite a few different ones flowering well now. I really like bergenias as ground cover or edging plants and we grow many in our own garden.
There are many spring flowering shrubs and small trees here which look extra special against a pure blue sky.
This is the time for magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias. to shine and here they certainly do it well!
So much is happening in this garden this month, flowers bursting from buds and foliage colouring up on almost every shrub and tree, meaning that we could appreciate broader views more than earlier in the year.
One spring flowering shrub that we enjoy in our own garden are ribes, the flowering currants. We grow red, yellow, white and bicolour ones. We really liked this dark flowered one growing here at Bridgemere which sadly was not labelled.
We enjoyed the spring colour in the show gardens this months and are looking forward to next month’s visit when we envisage many changes.
greenbenchramblings 