Great Dixter

Last year I posted pictures of Great Dixter here and here. It is interesting to compare what I was doing in my garden at the time, and what was happening here. I was clearing up like this year, and destroying the ivy, finding bird nests and moths. I prefer this year! The visit was a week earlier but I think Spring has been warmer this year so things are much more advanced.

I went with Jenny, and we spent quite a lot of time sniffing tulips and some other flowers. I have noticed that orange and red shades of tulip often smell orangey, which was confirmed to an extent today. This tulip was curry scented!

Is this some kind of orchid? I have not seen these before. There were lots in the meadow.

This Magnolia smelt like barley sugar to me and sherbet to Jenny. It was delicious!

Raspberry ripple type tulips.

These red tulips with the forget-me-nots were my favourite colour combination today.

But this pale yellow, pale lilac, grey and pink came a pretty close second.

The Mulberry tree is such an old gnarly thing, I love it! I have eaten a few mulberries from it in the summer.

The magical hedges remind me of whirling dervishes.

Two Gardens

Great Dixter, interspersed with my garden. Great Dixter-Zinnias in the vegetable garden.

I visited yesterday and it was as beautiful as ever.

I think this pink tree is called a Smoke Bush.
I just love the fluffy quality and the warm pink colour.
It contrasts really well with the dark green topiary.
I have been continuing to tidy my garden, and one area that needed a big tidy was the small yard area outside the back door. This is the little garden table-rearranged and cleaned. It has a bonsai tree which was a present at the end of term, some organic beer (which was in a cardboard box left over from Andy's birthday) and a re-potted Aeonim. I can see it now as I type and it is still tidy! I have been pulling up my lovely curry plant this morning-it had become really woody at the bottom and was out of control. I have taken some cuttings though and also have a bunch of it in a jug on the worktop. It smells so delicious, and used to provide a good place to rest wet washing while hanging it on the line. It also means we have curry scented cats where they sit under it. So I will miss it, but need to re-think that part of the garden.
I couldn't believe the perfect stars on this seedhead at Great Dixter.
I wish I had picked one-as I think it was about to be pruned.
I also wish I had found out what the plant was.
Empty pots waiting to be cleaned and more thoughtfully filled than last time.
I am thinking of having pots full of those little spiky alpine type plants
which do not need much maintenance, and look good even in a drought.

I loved this cow parsely type plant.

The second nest I have found in the ivy.

This one has two sad little blue eggs which didn't make it into chicks.

The mulberries ripening at Great Dixter.

Great Dixter

I took so many photos at Great Dixter today. The garden of the late Christopher Lloyd is just lovely.
Here are some of the pictures-if you would like to see more I have just uploaded all of them onto flickr. It is such a beautiful place with so many lovely combinations of colour and shape, that it is hard to resist just one more picture.

This little brick path is so inviting.

"You can choose any tulips you like for pot work" -Christopher Lloyd

Elegant snakes head fritillaries in the grass. I bought a couple of these, in the hope they may survive. Although they look lovely they have a most unpleasant smell-cat's wee! There were so many robins-and other birds-including house martins.

Some kind of exotic plant still in its winter blanket of straw.

This part of the house is a whole other house, that was taken down and transported by horse and cart from a nearby village. It was then left in the garden for a few years before being reassembled in around 1910. The owner at the time bought it for £75!

The very impressive hall-this is a photo of a postcard as we were not allowed to take photos. When we were in there today it had a more wild and woolly feel due to a huge palm and other large houseplants. There was a sweet picture of two dachshunds posed with a string of sausages. There were chairs and settles embroidered by the Lloyd family-Christopher Lloyd's mother made sure all her children were kept busy with this. I also liked the faint mark in the beam above the fireplace-a circle with a line drawn vertically down through it-to keep witches from coming down your chimney!