Tag: Yellow Book

Another Yellow Book Garden – Tea on the Way

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 31, 2016
3 Comments on Another Yellow Book Garden – Tea on the Way

We enjoyed a visit to another garden which appears in the National Garden Scheme’s Yellow Book, the scheme which our own Avocet garden is a part of. We spend many an afternoon visiting our fellow gardeners who open their gardens for charity.

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In mid-May we set off through the Hope Valley near our home and on through South Shropshire through the village of Clun up a narrow lane that got more and more narrow and rougher and rougher until we reached a field designated as a car park for the day. The garden of Guilden Down Cottage awaited a short walk away. We soon realised that we knew of this garden already in its other guise as “Tea on the Way”. The cottage owners serve refreshments to walkers passing by. But on the day of our visit they were open to raise funds for the charities of the National Garden Scheme.

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At the entrance to the garden we spotted produce for sale in a lane side stall.

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We waited to pay our entry fee and order our usual tea and cakes to prime us for our garden exploration! I noticed a beautiful woodstore and beside it a sleepy old sheep dog.

We soon began to realise that this was gong to be an interesting visit, perhaps not so much for the plants but more for its quirkiness and cheerful atmosphere. As we wandered towards a seat on which to enjoy our refreshments we spotted the first quirky artifacts. Even the seat we sat upon was home made and full of character.

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Once refreshed we took off on our exploration and first off found this well planted container. The planting around the front lawn looked lush and was set off by the bird bath.

A flight of stone steps with rustic trellis either side welcomed us into the main garden. Being an organic garden we were on the look out for unusual ideas and gardening methods. As always though we were searching out the plants!

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Some plants were planted in interesting containers or within collections of artifacts.

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The kitchen garden was beautiful with a network of paths made from woodchip entered via handmade gates created using wood harvested from the garden.

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Close to the kitchen garden we found a polytunnel and a fruit cage and some signs of organic principles in action, an insect home, comfrey liquid fertiliser and worm pee fertiliser.

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A few more artifacts and craft pieces spotted at Guilden Down Cottage will end this post nicely.

Tags Clun, container gardening, garden containers, NGS, NGS gardens, organic gardening, organic gardens, plants in containers, South Shropshire, wildlife garden, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

garden buildings garden design garden designers garden photography gardening gardens hardy perennials Herefordshire meadows outdoor sculpture sculpture Yellow Book Gardens

Montpelier Cottage – another Yellow Book garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 17, 2015
2 Comments on Montpelier Cottage – another Yellow Book garden

A warm bright day in early September was a great day to visit another National Garden Scheme, Yellow Book garden. Thus we drove once again into our neighbouring county of Herefordshire in search of Montpelier Cottage. The main roads turned into minor roads and the minor roads turned into lanes. The lanes got narrower and narrower until at last we found the yellow NGS sign on a gate into a field which for the day became a temporary car park.

The cottage in its primrose yellow livery felt so welcoming.

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A sense of humour, important in any garden, soon became apparent at Montpelier Cottage.

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The gardeners here are the garden writer Noel Kingsbury and his wife Jo Eliot and they have been developing the garden for ten years. The garden style and plant combinations are experimental looking to find “the border between the wild and the cultivated” being inspired by American prairies and the wildflower meadows of Europe. As we knew Noel Kingsbury had been working closely for many years with garden designers and nurserymen Piet Oudolf and Henk Gerritsen, we were interested to see how this ten year old garden had developed.

As we followed the narrow path towards the back of the cottage the gardens came into view and we knew we were in for a colourful wander. The terrace of stone slabs overlooked the garden and sitting here enjoying a refreshing tea and tasty cake we could get views over most of the garden. Brightly coloured annuals and tender perennials grew vigorously in pots.

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When we had finished our refreshments we soon found a sign which invited us through a gap in a hedge. Alongside the gap a piece of sculpture created from beautiful blue glass caught our attention.

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As in any garden there are certain individual plants that stand out and here at Montpelier Cottage they were this deciduous Euonymous sporting a cerise and orange colourway, the deep ruby flowered Sanguisorba “Red Buttons”, the monochrome bamboo, the Rosa rugosa with big hips and the incredibly tall growing Hollyhocks.

But as with any garden it is the big picture that gives it its own style and presence. At Montpelier Cottage the garden boasted large areas of perennial planting through which paths were cut.

It was too late in the year to see the wildflower meadows at their flowery best so we hope to visit earlier in the year in 2016, but the kitchen garden was looking very productive.

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There are interesting rustic buildings which came into view as we wandered the paths through the garden.

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I shall finish my post about this unusual garden with a photo of a lovely slate sculpture and another piece of creativity by Mother Nature herself, weaving with Ivy stems. The final picture shows a beautiful use of shaped box.

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Tags hardy perennials, Herefordshire, Herefordshire gardens, meadows, National Garden Scheme, new perennial gardening, NGS, NGS gardens, Noel Kingsbury, wildflower meadows, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials light light quality National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture photography Yellow Book Gardens

Aulden Farm – another Yellow Book garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 28, 2015
1 Comment on Aulden Farm – another Yellow Book garden

We open our garden under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme and love to see our garden in its famous Yellow Book. But we also love to visit other gardens from the Yellow Book.

We recently visited Aulden Farm which is in Herefordshire, our neighbouring county and we were particularly keen to wander around this garden as it has a similar description to our own in their Yellow Book entry although it is much larger! “Informal country garden surrounding old farmhouse, three acres planted with wildlife in mind. Emphasis on structure and form, with a hint of quirkiness, a garden to explore with eclectic planting.”

We had a lovely drive through beautiful countryside before parking on the grass verge and wandering up the gravel drive leading to Aulden Farm’s garden. A gravel area surrounded by interesting planting was a great place to enjoy tea and homemade cakes.

Alongside the tea courtyard was a gravel garden in front of a beautiful barn close to tumbling down. Verbena bonariensis was the star in this garden and the afternoon lit it up dramatically. Butterflies were attracted to it as much as me and my camera. This was an area full of texture and interest too good for any photographer to miss.

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We eventually left behind our tea, cakes, verbenas and butterflies and wandered, suitably refreshed, through the shade garden where the low rays of the sun created pools of light and shade. from here we could choose different routes through the garden described in its own leaflet as “very relaxed, tranquil and some even say romantic, but that is for you to decide”. So we couldn’t wait to find out for ourselves.

Now come for a walk with us around this beautiful garden by enjoying my gallery. Please click on the first photo and navigate with the arrows.

I hope you enjoyed this photographic journey around this wonderful garden. Is it romantic? Yes, definitely so! This is a garden with atmosphere.

We left with an invitation to return whenever we wanted – bliss.

In my next couple of posts about Aulden Farm gardens I will share my images of two special families of plants that caught the beautiful light that day and my imagination, Persicarias and Rudbeckias and also a look at some of the wide ranging sculpture we enjoyed there.

climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens hardy perennials irises light National Garden Scheme ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire trees Yellow Book Gardens

My Garden Journal – May

May has now finished so it is time to present my entries for that month in my Garden Journal. Gardening was totally at the behest of the weather, which was to say disappointing.

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As usual my first page for the month of May included my chosen quotation from Jenny Joseph’s little book “Led by the Nose – A Garden of Smells”. Concerning May she wrote, “I breathe in the warm pleasant air and think “Ah, heavenly summer” and the next day I have retreated to my living-room, lit my boiler again, shut the windows and returned to winter. May can indeed be a complicating month.”

I wrote, “Indeed here in Plealey, May has been a complicated month. The weather forecasters have been wrong every day. When they predict a cool 14 C we get a lovely warm 19 C. However for our May garden open day they predicted rain and we got it! But a few hardy souls turned up!

Many visitors to our garden are amazed by our Judas Tree, Cercis siliquastrum. Early in the month its buds are beautiful in colour and shape.”

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I moved on to write “May is the month that our Irises come out to play, to show off their colourful, wonderfully shaped flowers and glow whenever the sun makes an appearance. The palest colours always come first.

Turn over the page and we find my first watercolour painting and the return to the Judas Tree.

My painting is of one of our favourite grass-like plants, a rush called Luzula nivea. A real challenge to express its subtlety in paints. I wrote “In amongst the bright colours of May little subtle plants can amaze us.”

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Concerning the Judas Tree, Cercis siliquastrum, I wrote “By the middle of the month, our Judas Tree is in full bloom.” A selection of photos followed.

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Over the page I wrote “May has been a cold, wet month so most disappointing for us gardeners and lovers of wildlife. Birds, Hoverflies and Butterflies have hardly put in an appearance. One patch of surprise colour came as one of the many May showers came to an end. A multi-coloured arch in the sky.”

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Alongside the page about the rainbow was a second page about our Irises, where I wrote “By the end of the month our more extravagently coloured Bearded Irises are giving vibrant explosions of colour in the Beth Chatto border.” Below these words was my second painting for May depicting one of our more brightly coloured Irises.

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My final entry for my Garden Journal in May was a little gallery of photos.

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To see larger images click the first thumbnail photo and use the arrows to negotiate through the gallery. Enjoy!

Tags bearded iris, garden photography, gardening, gardens in May, iris, irises, May, NGS, ornamental trees, Shropshire, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

colours fruit and veg garden ponds garden pools garden seating gardens gardens open to the public grow your own kitchen gardens National Garden Scheme ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture poppies recycling sculpture shrubs trees walled gardens water garden water in the garden Yellow Book Gardens

Yellow Book Gardens – 4 – Upper Shelderton Hall

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 28, 2015
2 Comments on Yellow Book Gardens – 4 – Upper Shelderton Hall

We set out to visit our fourth Yellow Book garden on a cloudy day that promised showers and with a chill in the air. However as we drove down through the Shropshire countryside the skies cleared and the temperature rose. We left the main road and traveled down lanes that got more narrow as we got closer to our destination, the village of Shelderton.

The garden at Upper Shelderton Hall spread to over 6 acres and was mostly a wooded garden with areas of Rhodendrons and borders of herbaceous plantings. As usual we began with tea and cake which we enjoyed sat in the strangest walled garden we had ever experienced. The walls were a truly original creation. Each section was a sculpture in its own right made from a conglomeration of found or collected bricks and stones and ephemera.

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From our seat where we enjoyed our refreshment we could enjoy these amazing walls and also take in glimpses of the kitchen garden nearby. An old water trolley now unused sat alongside.

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After a wander around the fruit and veg beds we made our way towards a border that glowed with bright yellows, oranges and reds. We discovered that the bright blooms were those of a collection of deciduous Rhodendrons. Our noses were also delighted by these shrubs as the yellow ones had the richest sweetest of fragrances.

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We wandered on through the shade of wooded areas with the sound of a stream wandering through it and the scent of Bluebells following our every step.

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Leaving the shade of the tall trees we stumbled across a beautifully planted pond with crystal clear water. On one bank we discovered a lovely little stone carving, the first of several interesting pieces of sculpture we were to find in the gardens.

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On the edge of the main garden was an area of more mature woodland of mixed deciduous and coniferous specimen trees. Beneath them larger evergreen Rhodendrons provided splashes of colour.

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This comfortable set of table and chairs was simply too enticing for us. We just had to have more teas and cakes in order to try them out!

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As we enjoyed our refreshment we also enjoyed the colourful planting around us.

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We also looked up to spy this imposing cockerel windvane. Once we had enjoyed our refreshment we left the gardens of Upper Shelderton Hall having enjoyed yet another brilliant Yellow Book garden. We can’t wait for the next!

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Tags fruit and vegetable growing, garden photography, gardening, National Garden Scheme, NGS, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, shrubs, trees, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

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Wildlife Homes and Green Men

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date March 2, 2015
5 Comments on Wildlife Homes and Green Men

When we opened our garden last August under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme and appeared in its famous Yellow Book we included in our details that we welcomed children. We were aware that few gardens make this obvious so we decided to reverse the trend. We made a few quiz sheets available for them to encourage them to look closely. They were very popular and most youngsters had a go. Some were very determined to find everything on the sheets. Great fun!

One quiz sheet featured our little collection of “green men” which we have scattered around the garden, some of which are hard to find.

The other invited our children visitors to seek out the large variteies of wildlife homes, shelters and nesting places.

I thought you might like to see the photos of the green men and our wildlife features. Amongst the green men is a definite intruder who lives in our Japanese Garden on the trunk of the Salix flexuosa.

So now to our huge variety of wildlife features all designed and carefully placed to welcome all sorts of creatures, large and small.

Places for our feathered friends to roost and nest ………………

Places for beetles, invertebrates and amphibians ……………………….

Places for bees, lacewing and ladybirds ……………..

Places for all sorts of beneficial creatures – whoever wishes to drop in ……………………

We will have to think up some more quizes for our young visitors later this year.

Tags beneficial insects, garden insects, garden wildlife, insect homes, insect shelters, National Garden Scheme, nest boxes, NGS, predatory insects, roosting boxes, wildlife gardening, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

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Avocet NGS Open Day

At the weekend we opened our garden for the first time. Last February when we purchased the famous Yellow Book we were proud to see the name “Avocet” second on the list of gardens opening in Shropshire. Our August opening date seemed a long way off.

Suddenly it was upon us and we got more nervous the closer to Sunday 3rd August we got. We kept making sure nothing needed dead-heading, we checked the lawn to see how long the grass was and we wandered around every border to check there was enough interest especially colour.

The day before we opened our helpers arrived, my sister Penny and husband Tony came up from Bredons Norton a tiny Gloucestershire village and my brother Graham and wife Vicky from Farnham. Daughter Jo and her husband Rob dropped in from nearby Telford. We had a great evening working on preparations and then enjoying a meal with plenty of beer and wine consumed. Sadly I had to sick with Ginger Beer as alcohol and my morphine do not go well together!

So when the opening day dawned bright we were up with the lark checking that all signs were in place, the car park was ready, plant sales and tickets sales in place and the tea shop primed and ready for off.

The all important WC and teas signs were in place first followed by the balloons and signs at the bottom of the drive.

The ticket sales and plant sales tables were put in place and the tea shop set up ready and waiting for customers.

Vicky quietly put final finishing touches to her courgette and lime cake in the kitchen. Neither the tea shop or kitchen would be this quiet for a long time. Her cake became a real star!

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We were to open from 11:00 until 5:00 to spread the load on our quarter acre garden. We thought we would have a quiet time until the early afternoon once everyone had indulged in their Sunday lunches. How wrong could we be as by quarter to eleven cars were already parked up and people were wandering down the lane. Our first customer, our friend Sherlie soon collected the first cup of tea and a slice of cake. This was to be the first of over 250 teas and cakes served up by by our trusty tea ladies. The drive soon filled up with visitors buying tickets, collecting our garden info sheets and looking at Jude’s plants for sale.

Tony and Rob had the car parking well sorted. This would prove to be the last time they found time to relax. As things busied up our neighbour living in the Old forge, who had lent us the field, supplied them regularly with drinks and food. Here we see the car park attendants waiting and ready for the first customers.

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Things soon busied up and at the peak the field was almost full and we reached the stage of having only one car space left.

Every nook and cranny of the garden began to fill up with visitors keen to see every border, many making notes and taking photos. By the end of the day my voice was hoarse with answering so many questions, most visitors wanted to know the name of certain unusual plants but many were interested in the wildlife aspects of our patch and quite a few had queries about composting. It was heartening to see so many youngsters enjoying our garden and the little quiz sheets we had prepared for them.

As the last of the visitors wandered wearily down the lane to the car park we collapsed with tea and cakes of our own. The signs were soon down and our brilliant first opening was over.

We were tired and elated but pleased that 275 people came to see our little quarter acre patch. We were able to send a cheque for £1363.63 to the NGS to help support their charities.

We had just one day of rest before Jude and I spent an afternoon being interviewed for a magazine article about our garden. So many photos were taken and so many questions asked. We now look forward with anticipation to seeing our garden in print.

Tags National Garden Scheme, NGS, open days, open gardens, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

community gardening fruit and veg garden wildlife gardening gardens grow your own hardy perennials National Garden Scheme NGS Shropshire Shropshire Wildlife Trust wildlife Wildlife Trusts Yellow Book Gardens

Our Allotment Yellow Book Open Day

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 27, 2014
2 Comments on Our Allotment Yellow Book Open Day

This was our 4th annual NGS Open Day at our allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community. In the past we had been dogged by bad weather, heavy rain, high winds and once even excessively high temperatures. But today was to be different – the weather was perfect so we were set for a successful day. We open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme and thus we are proud to appear in their famous Yellow Book.

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Members of the public are invited to look around the individual plots and all our communal spaces. They can follow our Interest Trail, look at the wildlife areas and the communal gardens and the children have quiz sheets to enjoy and can use the features we have made for our members’ children such as the Willow Dome, Turf Spiral and Willow Tunnel. We turn our Communal Hut and the area around it into a Tea Shop for the day so that our visitors can indulge in tea, coffee and home made cakes and biscuits.

All the money raised goes to the NGS’s charities including Macmillan Nurses, Marie Curie and Help for Hospices.

Here are a few of the scarecrow creations members came up with. Little Miss Muffit, Peter Rabbit, Little Red Ridinghood, Dr Foster et al.

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On one plot visitors were asked to help Little BoPeep find her lost sheep. I will admit it took me ages to find him for a photo shhoot

The Wildlife Trust brought all this equipment for bug hunting and the volunteer from the Shropshire Mammal Group stayed on all afternoon entertaining and informing.

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Visitors took every chance to sit and enjoy our tea shop, where refreshments were on tap all afternoon.

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A few of the younger members just relaxed in the sunshine!

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Jude the Undergardener found a good spot to set her stall selling our herbaceous perennials she had grown from seed.

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Members were on hand to talk to our visitors, give advice and answer questions. Some visitors found comfy seats all round the site.

A good day was had by all and we felt proud to have raised over £1000 for such good charities.

Tags allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, community gardening, community spirit, decorated wheels, mammals, National Garden Scheme, NGS, scarecrows, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens, Yellow Necked Mice

climbing plants colours garden design garden photography garden ponds garden pools garden seating gardening gardens grasses half-hardy perennials hardy perennials Hardy Plant Society HPS National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs roses Shropshire The National Gardening Scheme" water in the garden Yellow Book Gardens

Aiming for a year round garden – our garden in June – how our visitors saw us.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 16, 2014
5 Comments on Aiming for a year round garden – our garden in June – how our visitors saw us.

This year, 2014 will be the year we open our garden under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme, so we saw our garden details published in the famous Yellow Book. This is a landmark for any gardener in England and Wales, albeit a pleasing one and a worrying one. So many questions pour into your mind when you see the description of your garden in print.

I had to provide 9 photographs of our garden taken in previous years at the same time of year we are due to open. It was hard to choose shots that gave the right “feel”. We wanted to give a taste of what our plot is all about and these pictures give further ideas for the visitor after they have read the paragraph we presented to the NGS. Luckily I could look back into the archives of my blog. To check out the photos I selected go to the NGS website, http://www.ngs.org.uk, click on “find a garden” and type in Avocet where you are asked for a garden name.

We have also been asked by a couple of garden groups if they could visit. So the first of these we set for mid-June and we felt it would provide a practice run for the big day in August. The group were the Shrewsbury Mini-group of the Shropshire Hardy Plant Society, so we knew them already which made the day a bit less daunting. I took a series of photos in the morning of the day they were coming to give an idea of how they would see our little quarter acre of garden.

This post also serves as part of my series on “Aiming for a Year Round Garden” where I look around our garden to see if our aim to have interest throughout he year is working.

The first photos show how we welcome visitors as they find our gateway and look up the drive.

Next we take a quick wander around the front garden to view the gravel garden (The Beth Chatto Garden), the stump circle and the driftwood circle, as well as the mixed borders around the lawn.

We have worked hard this year to make the drive and the side of the house more welcoming using antique galvanised containers planted up with Dahlias and Calendulas and brightly coloured Pelargoniums are planted in the hanging baskets and other containers.

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The next “port of call” is the Shade Garden followed by the “Fern Garden” and then into the “Seaside Garden”. I always seem to follow a set pathway around the garden when taking photos but I have to admit that I designed the garden to give visitors choices and so have created a situation where no two people wandering around need to follow the same route. I want each section of the garden to be viewed and approached from several directions. So although I am trying in this post to show our garden from our visitors’ viewpoint it is in reality just my own personal route.

And so to the back garden which has a different feel to it altogether as the individual garden compartments are all hidden in some way. It is a garden where you have to go looking – you cannot sit and look and take it all in in one go. Unlike the front, where from the seat under the arbor you can view most of the garden borders in one go, there are parts you can’t see so you are enticed to go to them for a close look.

In the back garden we find the water feature among Hostas and Toad Lilies on the end of the Shed Bed and from there you can look down the central path with arches draped with trained apple trees, roses and clematis. Another arch to the side of the main path affords glimpses of more borders.

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From the central path we can peer over the cloud pruned box hedge into these borders, which hopefully will entice the visitors to explore further.

By turning right off the central path visitors find themselves between the Chicken Garden and the Secret Garden and after a mere half dozen steps must choose which one to look at first.

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Within the Secret Garden alongside a comfortable cream coloured seat visitors can enjoy our latest creation, the Alpine Throne.

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If however our visitors chose to go left at the central path they would find further choices, the Japanese Garden, the Wildlife Pond and Bog Garden to the right or the Long Border and Crescent Border to the left.

Back closer to the house we can find the “Pollinators’ Border” complete with insect hotel, the Shed Scree Bed and the new Tropical Border.

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So there we have a quick tour of our garden in mid-June just as our first group of garden visitors saw us. We enjoyed the kind comments they left and felt it had been worthwhile, particularly when several said they would be back when we opened for the NGS in August.

The only downer was that the Bearded Iris had given us their best show ever, a true extravaganza for the three weeks or so prior to the visit. On the day just one bloom remained to show everyone what they had missed. Gardeners always say “You should have come last week.” and for us this may well have been true, at least where the Iris were concerned.

Our next big day is our NGS Open Day on the 3rd August so we are hoping we can maintain interest in the borders until then. A second mini-group of Shropshire Hardy Planters will be visitors a month after that so we will have to be “on our toes” for a while yet!

Tags clematis, foliage, garden photography, gardening, grasses, Hardy Plant Society, NGS, organic gardening, ornamental trees, Shropshire Hardy Plant Society, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

colours garden buildings garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials NGS nurseries photography Shropshire South Shropshire walled gardens Yellow Book Gardens

Day Lilies in a Walled Garden – Mynd Hardy Plants

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 13, 2014
3 Comments on Day Lilies in a Walled Garden – Mynd Hardy Plants

After opening our allotment community gardens at the weekend we felt in need of a restful day out. So Jude and I with friends Pete and Sherlie decided to visit a little nursery and garden close by. We chose what we thought would be a peaceful place and we were right.

As soon as you enter Mynd Hardy Plants in the Corvedale in South Shropshire you feel yourself relax, as the sight of so many colourful perennials reaches your eyes and an intermingling of scents seduces your nose. The new owners give such a warm welcome and it was good to hear of their plans, while the aroma of coffee and freshly baked scones took over the assault on our noses. The soppy Labrador joined in the welcome nuzzling our legs and seeking attention.

Displays of plants in flower now and for sale in the nursery beds struck us with their rich colours. Achilleas always attract me and the display here was exceptional.

As you can imagine we didn’t get far before the aromas coming from the tea shop area drew us away from the plants. We sat wondering how we were going to resist buying enough plants to fill the car. The rains came as we started our wanderings but it did little to dampen our emthusiasm.

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There were signs of how much work was to be done if the garden was to be restored.

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An extra treat was to come after our second tea break. We met the wonderful Day Lily specialist Mark Zennick.

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What a character! He convinced us within minutes that we loved all Hemerocallis even the bicolours and doubles that we thought we disliked strongly. I had known about his work and now I can put the face to the name. Check out the photos of just a tiny selection of his plants below and you will just begin to appreciate the vastness of his collection.

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It is always good to find a plant previously unknown to you. This little beauty struck the four of us equally and we enjoyed racking our brains to work out what it was. We were all totally wrong. When we turned to Mark for the answer we were amazed to learn it was a Lysimachia.

Naturally we came away with a lovely specimen for our own garden. And we will be back within a week or so. As we get closer to our own NGS open day we are sure to need a few specimens to fill the odd gap. Mynd Hardy Plants is the place to satisfy these needs! And of course I may take enough shots of different Hemoraccalis to create another post. Mark agreed to come and talk to the Shropshire Group of the Hardy Plant Society in the future, on the subject of Day Lilies of course, and the new owners wished to make a reciprocal visit to our gardens.

We had chosen well. Our visit had relaxed us and we felt we had made new friends. If you love Day Lilies, or if you love walled gardens or if you like independent nurseries you must go and visit. The challenge is to leave without buying a plant!

Check out the website at http://www.myndhardyplants.co.uk.