Tulips at Mottisfont

We stopped off at the National Trust’s Mottisfont on our way back from our short break in the New Forest. Breaking the journey with a stop at a National Trust property is absolutely my best way to break a journey, and while this one took us a little out of our way from a direct route it’d been a good few years since we last visited, so it really was a no-brainer.

I just checked and we previously visited in 2017 on our way back from a family celebration holiday in 2017. Back then I was pleased to discover the Potting Shed, but sadly it was no longer in place. On this visit though the tulips more than made up for that.

So as the tulips die back for another year, here’s a reminder of just how fabulous they are. There were so many different types, and many that I didn’t manage to capture (unbelievably!), and our wander through the walled garden started where I remembered the potting shed to have been with a large terracotta pot of tulips, and rows of raised beds equally full.

It was in these raised beds that these frilly purple tulips were mixed in with the paler pointy pink ones, and a more neutral yellowy-white variety. Though with the fancy ones, the neutral ones barely got a look in though I think they really did help the others shine.

Moving on into the walled garden the borders thronged with tulips, as you’ll see in a moment - but first just some of the glorious tulips that caught my eye. We were lucky with the weather for our visit, and the sun made the tulips shine even more.

You know how much I love a walled garden, and this one’s no different - but there’s something about gates in garden walls isn’t there? Especially closed ones, perhaps it’s the mystery of what’s behind it - and no doubt that is likely not to match my imagination.

We stopped on one of these benches to enjoy the space awhile, and admire the tulips too. On our previous visit the garden was full of roses, and I’m sure they are most likely making their presence felt right now. The climbing rose we have in our garden is doing spectacularly well with more flowers than we can remember for a long time, I’m hoping that many rose gardens are also benefitting from plenty of flowers and gorgeous scent.

There’s more individual flowers to share yet though, and I promise I didn’t stop to snap them all - though it was tempting!

The one above reminds me of rhubarb and custard, can you see that too?

As we wandered through to the end of the garden I caught sight of the armillary sphere and couldn’t resist a picture. I will have seen this previously and I’m sure admired it but wouldn’t have known its name. I do now though thanks to the Seven Sisters series of books by Lucinda Riley! See you never know when what you’ve learnt through reading will come in useful - I’m still several books behind though, and I’m waiting for some more to become available on KindleUnlimited (spoiler: I couldn’t wait for some, and it’s likely I’ll be purchasing the next in the series soon!)

It was great to have a wander around the walled garden, and to catch up with other parts of the property - including a quick tour of the house to see that again, and to answer a question I had from our previous visit. But that’s for another day…

Through a hedge into The Secret Garden

* I was provided a pair of tickets to the Gardeners’ World Spring Fair and therefore are marking posts from my visit as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

The Secret Garden by Hillier was a central feature of this year’s Spring Fair, inspired by The Secret Garden. It promised to be enclosed by high hedges, and the entrance was through part of this hedge, the design was said to encourage visitors to get up close and personal with the plants displayed, and that was the case, as much as you can at these kind of events.

Unsurprisingly it was a popular feature of the show and it was pretty busy when we visited but generally people gave each other space to enjoy and explore the garden which was absolutely full of plants.

On the right as we entered was the border containing the Himalayan Birch trees and hostas, which was getting much less attention than the border opposite. This area was designed to be more contemporary and included the low-maintenance brilliant white trunked trees. The hostas among the trees represented a ‘sea of foliage’ as a contrast to the colours opposite.

It was nice, but quite understated and in complete contrast to the larger section of the garden, which as you can see, was a lot more interesting.

The border full of herbaceous perennials and shrubs start with whites and purples and go through the spectrum of colours, the idea for the design was to move through the softer, delicate colours to intense and vibrant shades to depict the sun’s movement during the day.

One of the plants stealing the show was the bright pink Judas tree - isn’t it stunning? I think we’ll see more of these, and I’ve already spotted that some of the RHS Chelsea gardens are using them. I know I’d be happy to have one in my garden!

Along the back border the colours changed to the more intense and vibrant colours, with fiery reds and oranges and yellows, representing a bright sunset, and a beautiful end to the day.

Looking back at these photos it’s much more obvious than I remember at the time, though this is most likely because of sharing the space with more people than you would normally share a garden with, so it was much harder to look at the garden as a whole. However the photos allow that, and the planting is really rather special.

My other hot tip is shallow pots complete with pebbles and water - we saw these in more than one garden at the Spring Fair, and it’s something that’s easy to replicate at home, so I think we’ll see more simple water features in our gardens, and that can only be a good thing.

Rhododendrons and rocks at Exbury Gardens

* I was provided a pair of tickets to Exbury Gardens & Steam Railway and therefore are marking posts from my visit as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

We stopped off at Exbury Gardens on our way down to the New Forest, which for us in South London is about a two and a half hour journey, though the traffic app warns it could be anywhere up to four hours. We were lucky and had a really good, and uneventful trip down, which is just what you want really isn’t it?

It was our first time visiting Exbury, and we were keen to get out of the car to stretch our legs and to see for ourselves what was on offer.

Spoiler: I took lots of photos, way too many for a single post and so I’ll split these into more manageable chunks. And yes, I know that’s not much of a spoiler at all is it, it’s mostly the norm!

Exbury Gardens & Steam Railway, to give it its proper name, is as its name suggests in Exbury, Hampshire. It has 200 acres of informal woodlands and was created by Lionel de Rothschild in 1919 and still managed by the family today. It’s famous for its displays of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias with large collections, which are not only plentiful but also full of colour.

I wasn’t disappointed.

There were pinks of every shade you could imagine - the one above caught my eye as it was so vibrant and solitary, looking almost ‘bird of paradise’ like, but it wasn’t the only one. There’s over 800 types of rhododendron (which comes from the Greek ‘rhodos’ meaning rose and ‘dendron’ meaning tree) which are spread around the globe.

Here at Exbury Lionel de Rothschild relied on nurserymen from around the world to send him interesting plants, one of which went on to become the most famous post-war species and parent or grandparent to a host of compact plants suitable for smaller gardens.

I’m never one to pass on a photo opportunity of some lichen, you know how much I liken the lichen - but this one’s a real beauty!

And just when you think it can’t get any better there’s bushes and bushes of azaleas too which are truly stunning, the colours even more vibrant than those of the camellias and the rhododendrons we’d already seen.

We’d spotted the Rock Garden from our trip on the train - perfectly named the Rhododendron Line - and as all rock gardens should, its entrance was marked with a rock.

Here the planting changed, but we weren’t totally without the rhododendrons. The two acre garden was created in the late 1920s but fell into disrepair as a result of the war becoming overgrown and neglected. It was restored and replanted with dwarf rhododendrons and conifers in the 1970s which reached maturity some thirty years later. As with every garden, there’s always work to be done and this garden is no different and is currently undergoing a programme of rejuvenation.

And with the different planting, as you’d expect the garden had a totally different feel. It was calmer, and more relaxing - though that may also have been down to the speed (or lack of) that we explored the space. There were paths leading up and down and around, which including using the large rocks to navigate through the space - nothing too strenuous, but so, so worth it.

Having explored the rock garden and marvelled at how such spaces are created we left to immerse ourself in the colour elsewhere in the garden. In future posts I’ll share more about our trip on the steam train, the trees throughout the garden and the sundial garden - but in the meantime I’ll leave you with the deepest crimson rhododendron, the most glorious coloured one I think I’ve ever seen, and a wall of azaleas which provides the perfect photo stop.

I’d heard good things about Exbury Gardens before our visit, and as I said at the start of this post, I wasn’t disappointed.

With thanks to Exbury Gardens & Steam Railway who provided a pair of tickets for entry. All views and opinions are very much my own.