Even in Southern California many gardens look pretty plain and unexciting at this time of the year unless you plant tons of colorful annuals, of course. Overall mine for sure does, since I neither have the budget to splurge on annuals nor the time to plant them. Here it is high rose pruning season right now and that is what I am mainly busy with since the last week of December. Necessary work, but not really adding to the current beauty of the garden.
Because I suffer a little bit from the winter blues I thought it might be nice to look at some garden pictures, where a garden is actually in bloom and I went back to my files with the photos from our England trip last year in June. I think, I still have many beautiful shots from the Arundel Castle Gardens that I haven't shown you, yet. Alas here is another post about those lovely Gardens. Hope you like it!
Soft yellow phlomis was a plant that was extensively used in this garden room.
And yet another border, which I could not take my eyes of.
Nasturtium together with a succulent. The contrast between the intense orange yellow bloom of the nasturtium and the purple green thick leaves of the succulent just kept me captured for a while.

We left the garden through this wooden gate to enter, you guessed it, just another garden. I truly feel that the garden shown in this post is a masterpiece of garden architecture. There was so much to see and admire. I remember that by now my head was already spinning from all the beauty and unusual plants and structures that we had taken in, but I was also excited to explore what would come next. I hope you join me for another post about the Arundel Castle Gardens coming soon.
If you are interested to look at the previous posts that I did about the Arundel Castle Gardens, please click on the following links:
Arundel Castle, England Part I
Arundel Castle, England Part II
Arundel Castle, England Part III
See you in the garden!
Christina
Because I suffer a little bit from the winter blues I thought it might be nice to look at some garden pictures, where a garden is actually in bloom and I went back to my files with the photos from our England trip last year in June. I think, I still have many beautiful shots from the Arundel Castle Gardens that I haven't shown you, yet. Alas here is another post about those lovely Gardens. Hope you like it!
After leaving the Collector Earl's Garden (to see my post about it click here) we entered another garden area, which was defined by tropical plantings, a maze mowed into the lawn and a wild flower meadow interplanted with palms as the centerpiece of the maze. The main lawn area in the middle of this garden was surrounded by very nice borders and there were two more structures build out of green oak wood. You can see them in this photo: to the left of the Arundel Cathedral a pavilion is placed and to the right a wooden gate, which provided a stunning exit of this garden room. I found the design, choice, and combination of plants in this area quite fascinating and unusual and I don't think that I have ever seen anything like this before. The majestic Arundel Cathedral gives the garden a very special background and I feel they made optimal use of this borrowed view the way the garden is designed.
I loved the opulent plantings of alliums in some of the flower beds. The alliums were a little bit past their prime, when we were visiting but still real beauties to look at.
Here we are standing in front of the slightly elevated wooden pavilion (see first photo of this post) looking back down on the maze and the Collector Earl's Garden with its impressive and beautiful wooden structure in the background.
The paths were layed with a light gray/white gravel, which was nice to look at and made pleasing crushing sounds under our feet. In this garden room they also used plenty of tasteful and nicely planted terracotta containers.
I was completely taken by the lush and unusual border plantings in this area. I would love to plant my garden as densely as it is done here, but it would cost a fortune to do this at once. So I only can come closer to this goal one plant at a time and be patient, but persistent.
The wooden pavilion, shot from another angle. I just love everything about this garden area. It is simply perfect!
Inside the pavilion shown one photo above was an interesting fountain installed. It looked liked that the golden crown was simply held up in the air by the strong water ray of the fountain itself. I think that was indeed the case unless we have fallen for a trick.
Soft yellow phlomis was a plant that was extensively used in this garden room.
Close-up of the center of the maze.
Fascinating borders, which offered many ideas for plantings at home. Especially because they seem to work in a Mediterranean climate where I live as well.
Close-up of the beautiful penstemon that you could see in the shot of the border in the photo above this one. I bought my first blue/lavender penstemons last year in autumn inspired by our visit of Arundel Castle. It is not the same variety as this one, but I find it equally pretty and as far as I can judge by now it does well in my garden. Can't wait for spring to come so that the bees and I really can enjoy the lovely blooms. Did you know that bees go crazy about penstemons?
How much I admired this border planted with palms, dracaenas, alliums, nasturtiums and many more interesting plants. Inspired by this bed I intend to sow some nasturtiums in my garden, too.
Close-up of nasturtiums together with the alliums. Don't you just love the combination?
The variety in tropical plants was just stunning and the obelisk seen on the left side of the path fit so well in here and added further interest.
Nasturtium together with a succulent. The contrast between the intense orange yellow bloom of the nasturtium and the purple green thick leaves of the succulent just kept me captured for a while.
We left the garden through this wooden gate to enter, you guessed it, just another garden. I truly feel that the garden shown in this post is a masterpiece of garden architecture. There was so much to see and admire. I remember that by now my head was already spinning from all the beauty and unusual plants and structures that we had taken in, but I was also excited to explore what would come next. I hope you join me for another post about the Arundel Castle Gardens coming soon.
If you are interested to look at the previous posts that I did about the Arundel Castle Gardens, please click on the following links:
Arundel Castle, England Part I
Arundel Castle, England Part II
Arundel Castle, England Part III
See you in the garden!
Christina