Sunday, January 27, 2013

Parham House and Gardens, England - III

If you missed the first and/or second part of my series of posts about Parham House and Gardens and would like to see them before you read this one, here are the links. If you click on them, they will take you to the previous posts:

Parham House and Gardens, England - I
Parham House and Gardens, England - II



After my husband and I exited the Walled Garden and took a brief rest on a bench, enjoying the views into the open park-like landscape, we explored the part of Parham Gardens that is called the Pleasure Grounds. We only had to walk a little bit further to the left to stumble over this stunning maze. I am used to mazes designed with precisly clipped high hedges, but this was the first time that I have seen a maze layed out with brick flat onto the lawn. I liked it quite a bit. This is certainly a kind of design that would be more doable in a private garden, if you are inclined to attempt to create a maze for your own amusement.

One detail about Parham that was rather striking to me were the ancient very tall specimen trees. This photo illustrates very well how much charm and life they give to this garden. Imagine the maze with only lawn in the background. Wouldn't be quite the same, would it?



As we strolled back to the right through the Pleasure Grounds, we came across this beautiful wisteria. Like almost everything in this part of the garden is was quite big and had a lovely urn placed to its side to keep it company.



I feel that every grand estate needs a pond or lake and sure enough Parham had its own. In this case the lake was quite large and had the most vivid fish that I have ever encountered. They were jumping out of the water and sloshing it with their fins as if they had spring fever. It was quite a spectacle. To my understanding the "see-through" wall had no other purpose than being a decorative element in the garden design.



Looking back to the Walled Garden you see the "see-through" wall from the other side again, flanked by two wisterias with urns on the outer sides. I always find that symmetry brings harmony and peace to a garden and has immediately a calming effect on me.



Close-up of the wistera. It was quite a beautiful variety. I am not a wisteria expert, but it looked special to me.



Close-up of one of the urns flanking the wisteria. What a wonderful piece!



This part of the garden had such a wonderful romantic feel to it. I could have spent a whole day here just listing to the sounds of nature and enjoying the views.




Tall trees were spending refreshing shade.



On the way back to the walled part of the garden our path led us up these charming stairs.



Re-entering the Walled Garden we had a lovely view of a long double border, again! The size of the border was just striking.



As I mentioned in an earlier post about Parham, there were a lot of statues well placed throughout the gardens. This putto caught my eyes,...



.... he was in good company by another beautiful one placed close by. I absolutely would love to have something similar in our garden.



On the inner side of the Walled Garden there were flower beds planted at the foot of the impressive walls. Here they grew blue iris together with a white flowering clematis. This bed is striking in its simplicity!



Lovely vessels were placed into the beds. I wonder what function, other than being decorative, they once had. The contrast between the airy light yellow flower stalk and the organic form of the vessel with the dark patina is just pure pleasure for the eyes.



This is the Wendy House, build in 1928, a playhouse for children build into the wall. My husband peeking out of the door gives you an idea about the size. Inside there was a fireplace and a staircase that led to a second story. Quite cute and certainly special for the children, who had an opportunity to play in it!

In the next and final post about Parham I will show you more pictures from the inside of the Walled Garden and a lovely pelargonium collection displayed in an old greenhouse.

See you in the garden!

Christina



19 comments:

  1. Lovely garden Christina, I like the maze idea too, it's something anyone can do.

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  2. Dear Christina,
    I am enjoying these posts on Parham - a place I have not been too. The park is wonderful - when I was a child I often tried to imagine what it would be like to live in such a place and see the magical people that I was sure lived there and only came out when the people had gone for the day. I would have felt right at home in that Wendy House too!
    Bye for now
    Kirk

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  3. Such a gorgeous place! I can imagine ourselves having a picnic there already :) Roll on summer!

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  4. The maze is wonderful so different from the usual mazes. The English estate houses and gardens are always so beautiful. Love the children's playhouse too. Does remind me when we were children, we made in summer a playhouse in a cowshed.

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  5. Dear Christina ~ I have loved each installment of this garden. I can just feel the peacefulness, the quiet, and the beauty all around is wonderful.

    Thank you ~ FlowerLady

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  6. This is heavenly! What a treat to be in this garden!

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  7. Hi Christina,
    Do you have any idea about the size of this property - like how many acres? That maze indeed gave me idea - I will try to create a smaller version of it in our garden :-).

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  8. Hello Christina, nice to meet you :) You are visiting one of my favourite places in the world, an English garden. I will enjoy going back to look at your previous posts!

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  9. The walled gardens at Parham are especially lovely, and I do like the idea of that maze - it has set my mind working for our own garden.

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  10. Karen, the maze idea is pretty cool, isn't it?

    Kirk, I am glad that you like my posts about Parham! I think the Wendy House is the dream of any child.

    Mark and Gaz, my husband and I actually had a picnic at Parham! Not in the Pleasure Grounds, but they had a really lovely picnic area close to where you park your car with the very best view at Parham House. I still remember it as if it was yesterday!

    Janneke, you are right the English estate houses and gardens are truly special. I haven't seen one yet that wasn't worth the visit!

    Lorraine, thanks, you just summed up my feelings about Parham perfectly. There is nothing to add to that!

    jayneonweedstreet, I also consider it a special treat to be able to visit this particular garden and I am so happy that I can share it now with my blog readers!

    KL, the Parham estate has a whopping size of 875 acres total. The Walled Garden is 4 acres and the Pleasure Grounds are 7 acres. Impressive numbers, huh?

    Rosemary, nice to "meet" you as well. We have already one thing in common, English gardens are my favorite places to visit as well :-)!

    Rosemary, I am happy when this post has inspired you to work in you own garden. Nothing better than puttering around in one's garden, in my humble opinion ;-)!

    Christina

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  11. LOVE the children's playhouse! Wow! I also love all the statues and urns. But I also love the wisteria, and think it is such a romantic plant. I really must find a spot for one in my garden! Thanks for the tour!

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  12. Thanks for the tours, I have looked back at the previous ones too since I missed them :-) Looks like a lovely place to come visit and a great place to get ideas for your own garden, albeit down-scaled to fit! I would love to have some statues in my garden, but I might settle for an old urn or some other pottery.

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  13. Pahlam garden is wonderful! I love most the wall covered with white flowering clematis and blue irises.Thank you for sharing!
    here is my English speaking blog: http://northern-garden.blogspot.com/

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  14. Holley, I agree there are a lot of things to love at Parham :-)! I think a wisteria would be awesome in your garden. Unfortunately for mine I think the plant is way too big.

    Helene, I definitively feel that you can take ideas from Parham and realize them in your own garden, just at a different scale, of course :-)! An urn would look marvelous in your garden and living in England you probably have good chances to pick up a nice old one somewhere. Good luck!

    Nadezda, the white flowering clematis together with the blue irises is certainly a wonderful sight. Nothing is distracting from this beautiful plant combination in this bed. Simply, but stunning!

    Christina

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  15. Liebe Christina,
    eine tolle Gartenanlage :-)
    Irgendwann (wenn die Kinder größer sind)
    möchte ich dort auch mal hin.
    Deine Bilder sind zum Träumen schön!
    Besonders bei unserem derzeitigem Mauschelwetter :-)
    Ganz viele liebe Grüße Urte

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  16. Hi Christina...these gardens are spectacular!! I love the charm of the old steps, walls and statues! I look forward to following your blog!

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  17. Urte, thanks for your kind words about my photos! I hope you get a chance to visit England's gardens. It is so worth it!

    Christy, welcome to my blog and thanks for becoming a follower. I think the British are masters in enhancing the gardens with statues and all kind of hardscape their is so much to learn from them.

    Christina

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  18. What a beautiful place! You were smart to take so many pictures so you can look back and remember all the combinations of plants. I really like the inground maze, what a fun idea!

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  19. Catherine, my husbands thinks that I sometimes take too many photos, but I strongly disagree ;-)! You can never have too many photos of a beautiful garden! They also keep the memories alive of the places that we have visited together.

    Christina

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