Coleton Fishacre is one of the gardens in Devon we visit most times we’re in Devon, but it’s been a very long while since I shared it here on my blog - I’m not sure why. But anyway we last visited in December and our visit coincided with some of the celebrations to celebrate their centenary, which also included a visit to the Speakeasy for proper (but understandably tiny) cocktails.
The weather was wet - on reflection it’s not only been wet so far this year, there was so much water around for our pre-Christmas visit, but thankfully we mostly got a chance to take a look at the gardens during one of the breaks in the weather.
And even though it was a wet, wintery day there was still plenty to see around the gardens - and still plenty of colour. We even spotted our first daffodil in flower, in early December - eek!
The colour was more autumnal in other parts of the garden, and this remains of the flowering seedhead from what I think is a ginger lily was typical of the colours on show. Isn’t it fantastic?
Like many gardens in Devon and Cornwall, this one heads down towards the coast, though in this case where the gardens end you reach the coastal path on the clifftops, rather than the sea but with the amount of plants it’s clear to see that the garden has its own microclimate. But even so I was surprised to see the new lush growth on the banana plants with leaves ready to unfurl themselves.
The burnished autumnal leaves were more what I expected and it was great to catch this in a burst of sunshine and to bask in its warm, however briefly.
It was no surprise that the stream through the garden, and especially in the Rill garden (not pictured) was full and fast flowing given all the rain that had fallen in the past few days brought by the Storm Bram, which was almost a memory now that we were among these more tropical plants.
Then I stopped to pick up one of these fallen fruits, curious as to what it could be. While it looks strawberry-ish, it’s harder than that more apple in texture, but clearly not an apple. It almost looks as if its from a more Mediaeval time doesn’t it?
It’s actually the fruit of a dogwood, and gloriously so. I think we’ve seen them here before but never from my dogwoods in my own garden.
As you’d expect in the damp mossy parts of the garden there were plenty of funghi growing amongst them, and if the skies didn’t look quite so heavy I might have had more pictures to share, but instead as we were at the furthest point away from the house we decided to head back before getting rained on again.
But that didn’t stop me snapping a couple of hastily taken shots of these gorgeously coloured berries, and the start of a camellia - again that’s early, surely?
We only made it halfway back up to the house before the drizzle got heavier, but we stopped in the gazebo for shelter and were rewarded with this amazing, if not a little misty, view.
We weren’t there for long though before the weather passed over, and our patience was rewarded with a clearer view over the garden. Coleton is a great place to visit, even in winter. Now my challenge is to visit in sunnier weather to show you how glorious the garden can be all year round.