Saturday, January 21, 2017

Hidcote Manor Garden II

Since the beginning of the new year, I catch myself getting somewhat antsy thinking about our next vacation. Now that is a little bit early since we are most likely not be able to go anywhere before June but I can already dream and the joy of anticipation is a nice thing to have.

I would love if we would be able to visit England and its beautiful gardens again. To fuel my dreams and maybe yours as well I thought I would continue to write about Hidcote Manor Garden. We saw this garden in June last year and I did already one blog entry about it.



This time I will focus on a part of the garden called the Long Borders, which is a rather colorful exuberantly planted part of the garden containing many old French rose varieties.

But before we go there I would like to tour some of the exclusively "green parts" of the garden. There are areas which comprise precisely clipped trees and hedges, vast open spaces with long vistas, and magnificent mature trees to admire, which Hidcote is also famous for.



This is a partial view of the Stilt Garden, which is said to be inspired by Lawrance Johnston's, the creator of Hidcote, many trips to France. Maybe he enjoyed playing a game of Boules here. These rows of neatly pruned trees (are they hornbeams?) certainly make for an impressively long vista.



Notice the beautiful wrought iron gate at the end of the vista. It provides the perfect focal point for the tree alley. I realized that Johnston made extensive use of elaborate wrought iron gates in his garden which contribute a lot to its beauty.



The tree in the background, which I believe is a Cedar of Lebanon, was impressive, to say the least. Towering like a king over his empire it is located in an area simply called the Great Lawn. My husband is posing in the photo to give you an idea of its size. Hidden under the low branches of that tree to the left there is a gate, which is a  little hard to see, through which we entered later into the Beech Allee.



But first a photo of the Great Lawn. This space is humongous. You can see parts of the Cedar of Lebanon to the left.



Here we are back to the entrance of the Beech Allee. There is another lovely wrought iron gate at the end of the allee leading into to the open space of the surrounding countryside. 



Looking in one direction of the Beech Allee...



...and in the other. It is hard to describe the emotions wandering around under these very tall and magnificent trees. I couldn't help but feeling in awe of nature and getting a sense of that the human ego isn't the most important thing in the world.



Passing by the kitchen garden we walked towards the famous Long Borders. Unfortunately, I photographed against the sun but still decided to include this shot in the post because this scene of majestic old yew pillars together with the wisterias grown as standards is so beautiful that I wanted you to see it as well.



Simply love the old gnarly wisteria trees.



View of the Long Borders.



The tall yew pillars give this border a wonderful structure year round no matter what is the season. As I said in the introduction to this post, Johnston planted many old and rare varieties of French roses in this part of the garden. As a rose lover I was particularly excited to see those, but got disappointed because even though we visited the garden in June, there were only very few in bloom.



It was fascinating and a great tribute to the skillfulness of the gardener, who designed this border that even though the roses weren't blooming much you didn't miss them. The border was planted so densely with other flowers and contained plants with great foliage and texture that they could hold their own. I wonder besides the yew pillars and the roses if it was still Lawrence Johnston's original design.



I was impressed by this silver leafed thistle-like plant. The combination with the alliums is so pretty.



Oriental poppies are another favorite of mine. 



The lupines did so well in this border. I wonder if white lupines would grow in my own garden in San Diego, but I am almost certain that they are very water thirsty plants.



Close-up of the lupines. Aren't they pretty?



And a close-up of the salmon colored oriental poppy. The dark stamens are fascinating.



By the way, Lawrence Johnston created the Long Borders between the 1930s and 1940s. It was the last area of the garden to be planted. Prior to that, it was an old orchard and a few of the original apple trees can be found to this day.



Even though the red lupines shown above were pretty these more subdued pink ones are more to my taste. I love them together with the blue delicate flowering plants in the background.



Looking back towards the Long Borders. Obviously, I wasn't the only one who couldn't stop taking photos. I had preferred to take the last shot of this incredibly beautiful area of the garden without people in it, but I was lucky that there weren't more in the picture since the garden was very well visited. I believe it gives you still an idea of the beauty of this border.

As always, I hope you enjoyed touring this famous English garden with me. I have taken many more photos of Hidcote and there will be further installments of this fabulous garden in the future on my blog. If you want to see part one, please click on the link below:

Hidcote Manor Garden I

Wishing you all a beautiful rest of the weekend!

See you in the garden!

Christina






36 comments:

  1. Beautiful pictures of the garden.. the color of the poppies are so beautiful and very different..

    Please visit: http://from-a-girls-mind.blogspot.com

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    1. krishna, welcome to my blog and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Glad you like my photos! In England I have seen these poppies quite a few times, they are not all that rare there. I wonder if they could be easily grown in the US as well.

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  2. I enjoyed this so much ! And I will say that the most important lesson I ever learned in photograpy was at a workshop in Yosemite a few years ago : "backlight and sidelight, no front light", and this is why your 2 photos of the Wisteria are so beautiful. I hope someday to see Great Dixter, that is my biggest must see across the pond.

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    1. ks, hmmmm, so you think my photos of the yew pillars and the wisteria are good?! I was almost not including them because I have the "light glare dots" on the yew pillars in the first photo, and the wisteria almost looks like it has a halo on the second.
      Anyway, I am really would love to improve my photography skills. That is one of the new year's resolution that I made. A course would be great, but that is not in the budget right now, so I think I will start with finally reading the book about photography that I got from my husband quite a while ago already ;-)!

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  3. The sheer size of these English gardens is daunting but there's always something to learn from them in terms of the plant combinations. I'd love to grow those majestic lupines too but I was only semi-successful doing so and that was years ago when water wasn't the problem it is now.

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    1. Kris, yes, I agree with you the plant combinations of English gardens are always worth studying. The Brits are simply masters in creating them.
      Oooh, you did already try to grow lupines?! Yeah, I guessed already that they are too water thirsty for our climate. Interestingly though, we have wild blue lupines in our area and maybe we can't grow the varieties used in Britain, but there might be smaller once that we can. I have to look more into this...

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  4. Oh, it's dreamy. Sigh... The Lupines and the Wisteria tree--yum.

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  5. Danke - für diese herrlichen Impressionen! Der Garten ist wirklich sehr schön. Die Libanoncedern allerdings mag ich nirgends so richtig!

    Sigrun

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  6. Thank you for yet another post about this lovely garden. How wonderful to have seen it in person.

    Happy January ~ FlowerLady

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  7. Yo lo veo precioso, me ha encantado. Besitos.

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  8. How I would love to see this garden in person! I cannot get over those red lupines. They are incredible.

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  9. Dear Christina, lovely to see your post about Hidcote. A totally different perspective! Thanks for sharing, I was in the garden again......Groetjes Hetty

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  10. Great photo's Christina. Must be great to visit this garden.
    On my wishlist of visiting gardens is Sängerhausen Rosarium in Germany.
    I love the lupines but I don't like to grow in my garden.
    Have a wonderful week ahead.
    Warm wishes Marijke

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    1. Marijke, thanks! Yes, Hidcote is totally worth a trip!
      I also would love to go to Sangershausen. I travel at least once a year to Germany to visit my elderly mom, so I hope that I will be able to incorporate a trip to Sangershausen as well at one point.
      I wonder why you don't like to grow lupines in your own garden when you otherwise love them.

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  11. Hi Christina!
    Beautiful garden and lovely pictures. There are so many lovely gardens in UK that I´d like to visit.
    Have a nice day /Regards Marika

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    1. Thanks, Marika! I am feeling the same, even though, in comparison to other countries, I visited quite a few gardens in England, but there are so many more that I would like to see. And there are some that I would love to tour again :-)!

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  12. Thank you for the tour of the beautiful English garden. The lush greenery and gorgeous flowers are just what I needed to see on this gloomy Monday.

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  13. What a gorgeous garden. I love it and I could spend hours walking around there. Thank you for sharing at Dishing it and Digging it link party.

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  14. Lovely to stroll through the beautiful gardens with you, Christina! The yews make a dramatic focal point to the lovely gardens and I love the mysterious allee's too. The red lupines and coral poppies are such a beautiful combination. So nice to see the flowers on a gray and dreary day here. xo Karen

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  15. Gorgeous, the big old Yews are so magnificent. The luxurious amount of space in the Long borders is both intimidating and envy inducing to any gardener. There are a few native CA lupines, you know--very easy to grow and their roots set nitrogen in the soil for the roses.

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    1. Hoover Boo, I can't help but love the old yews! One thing that impresses me always in English gardens is that they really give plants time to grow. Often trees are planted that will reach their full potential and effect in the garden only for the next generation. The foresight, patience and love of gardening is just amazing.
      Yes, I know that we have native lupines here. I will look into those this year!

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  16. Oh, I would be in heaven in this garden! One of my most favorite things to do, attending garden tours! Last spring hubby and I vacationed in NC for a week. He returned home and my sil and I attended 3 tours in Charleston. What a wonderful adventure! Poppies, Lupines, and Wisteria are among my favorites. Had gorgeous lupines at our home just 3 min. from here, but no luck up here. :( Poppies on the other hand do fabulously! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  17. Dear Christina, I know that I could write this comment also in German, but an answer in English is a good chance to improve ja skills ;) I'm happy to welcome you on my blog. Your's ist also nice, so you will habe a new follower too.

    You are living in California? Wow! The climate there is quite different than in Austria ;)

    Have a nice day ;)

    Kathrin

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    1. Kathrin, welcome to my blog and thanks for becoming a follower!
      Yes, I do live in California, in San Diego in Southern California to be precise.
      And yes again, there is a tremendous difference between our climates, which makes it very interesting for me to see what you are growing in your garden.
      Hope to see you soon here again!

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  18. Liebe Christina,
    So ein wunderschöner Garten wieder :-)
    Dieses Jahr werd ich auch das erste Mal England
    besuchen und mit meiner Mama gemeinsam
    eine Gartenreise machen.
    Ich freu mich schon wahnsinnig :-)
    Liebe Grüße
    Urte

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  19. Love the garden, especially the lupines! I don't know if they are very thirsty, I have some also and it can get quite hot in our garden in summer!

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    1. Adriana, it is a very beautiful garden, isn't it? Interesting that you think that lupines might be not that thirsty. That would be certainly great news for me. I think I simply have to try them out and see what happens.

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  20. Hi Christina, I loved seeing the trees and spacious lawn! One of the first garden books I ever owned featured Hidcote, and many times I have studied images of that fantastic long border. But I had no idea of the lawn! Thank you for sharing your photos. This is one garden I would love to visit.
    Best wishes!
    Deb

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    1. Deb, now that is exciting that have a garden book that shows the Long Borders in detail. I would love to see it and compare if things have changed over the years.
      I am glad for your feedback that you liked to see the "completely green parts" of the garden like the ancient trees and the huge lawn areas, since I wasn't sure if my readers would be bored by them.
      Hidcote is definitively worth a visit, but on the other hand there are many more gardens in that part of England that I found equally impressive, but that are not so known. I hope that I get to blog about them in the future as well.

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  21. Hello Christina, I am trying to catch up with blogs and it is such a long time since I visited you. I have looked at some of your previous posts, I am so happy to read you have had enough rain for the roses to be happy, and I saw all your latest rose photos - absolutely lovely - especially now when I have cut down all my roses and have NONE - while waiting for them to grow back again.

    Thanks for the lovely tour of Hidcote, I have never been there but know of them as I have the lavender named after them - the most common lavender in Britain I guess! I have also tried growing lupins, but didn't succeed, not because I didn't water enough but because the slugs demolished them. Might give them another try as it is many years ago.
    Keep on dreaming about Gardens in England, and next time you and your husband come you could have a few days in London and see Kew Botanical Gardens - and my garden - both are worth a visit I should say :-)
    Best wishes,
    Helene

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    1. Helene, I am glad you found the time to stop by again and thanks for your kind words about my rose photos.
      I think I have seen the 'Hidcote' lavender variety even here in the US. Maybe I should get it for my own garden, that would be a really nice addition and a lovely reminder of our visit at Hidcote Manor Gardens.
      Thank you so much for your invitation to see your garden. It would be nice to do that and also to meet you in person. Usually we leave London immediately after we arrive in England to get to our accommodation in the countryside, but if we stay in the city, I will definitively consider visiting you and your lovely garden.

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  22. Hidcote is one of my favourite gardens here in the UK, and I really enjoyed your post, as it brought back happy memories of our visit.
    Planning holidays for warmer times is a lovely way to get through this time of the year - although we have had a lovely spring-like day here today.

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  23. How beautiful! I want to now dig everything up and start over again with my gardens. Wow! I've seen this featured in English Garden magazine, but your photographs really bring it to a more personal level. Thank you for sharing these.

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  24. Happy Pink Saturday, Christina. I am so glad you joined us, and I hope you will come back for every Pink Saturday. This post is being featured on my Pink Saturday post this week as "the one that caught my eye".♥

    Thank you for letting me tour this exquisite garden with you. I can almost hear the voices of those that strolled among the beauty years and years ago.

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  25. Dear Christina,
    thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures! I really envy you for having been to all these great gardens in England. I finally booked my first garden vacation to England about three weeks ago and can´t wait to go there. I will not visit Hidcote manor, but will visit Sissinghurst and Mottisfont as well as some other gardens.
    Best wishes,
    Lisa

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