Nottinghamshire's tropical garden

Yes, you read that right. A while back I spotted Honeytrees tropical garden in a local Facebook group, and my interest was piqued. It’s close to us, a little over ten miles away and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine anything quite so lush, or tropical so close by. I also spotted that they planned to open every weekend in August as part of the National Garden Scheme. As MOH has long had a hankering for including a banana tree in the plans for our garden it made sense to go along - we managed to get there on the last day of August, and their last day of opening for the year - phew.

It was amazing. Packed full of plants, and then some more on top of that.

And on this chilly December day I thought I could do with a burst of tropical colour. What I didn’t really expect to see though was some roses, but I did.

The garden was packed full of plants and structures including a viewing platform - and while it was a relatively large plot it wasn’t overly huge. It just goes to show that you really can transform spaces with some thought, and a lot of passion.

For MOH it’s the colour of the cannas, and the scale of the banana plants that appeal to him. For me it’s the multicoloured foliage and less than usual shapes.

And as we went around the garden, each turn wowed us more. I’m not about to turn my plot into a tropical garden - I’ve seen how much work goes into this garden - but I would like to incorporate some of the plants we saw when we visited.

Maybe not a monkey tree though…

With so many tropical plants and not so tropical winters, many of the plants needed to be sheltered at this time of year. There were a lot of pots, but also a lot of plants already in hot houses, which were already pretty hot back in August.

The work I mentioned before included lots of propagation, and I mean lots!

Some of the plants were for sale, and we were sorely tempted. But in the end we left empty handed but with a bit more knowledge about caring for the plants, and knowing that we’d be back again to visit and at some point likely to be ready to make a purchase too, but not until we’ve got somewhere to overwinter it properly to give it the best chance of surviving, and that could be a little while yet - no doubt much to MOH’s frustration.

Enjoying blue skies and a peek at Norwood Park's gardens

Last week I spotted that Norwood Park was holding a series of Open Garden Tuesdays as part of the National Garden Scheme, knowing that these events get booked up quickly, I grabbed a spot on their first opening date. I’ve looked again today, and registration for the Tuesdays is now closed but the grounds and gardens are opening on the first Sunday of the month for the remainder of 2024 - I’d recommend booking early if you’re planning to go along to this, or any other NGS Open Garden event.

We were lucky with the weather for our visit - it’s been a wet winter in this part of the country, and a blowy one too, so it was great to feel the warmth of the sun on our back, its glint in our eyes and enjoy the blue skies.

Norwood Park is ‘an exclusive private country estate in Southwell’ which has been restored and is billed as ‘the perfect venue for; weddings, corporate retreats, private celebrations, short stays, filming and photoshoots, plus so much more’ on its website. And I agree it would be a perfect setting for a wedding.

It was also good to spot our first camellia bush of the season, and a pretty pink one at that. In our previous house we had an on-off relationship with our own camellia guessing when it might flower, which was usually months after that of our neighbours - and I’d both forgotten and missed that this year - perhaps I should add a reliably flowering camellia to our own garden.

I’m a sucker for dried hydrangea heads though, and it was no different with these - and they instantly reminded me of the ones I saw a good few years back at Blickling in Norfolk, though with an added pop of colour provided by the miniature daffodils.

I had a wry smile to myself when I saw the daffodils above trying their hardest (and mostly succeeding) to push their way through the lavender bush - that’s the thing with bulbs, they just want to grow don’t they? I’m hoping that my own ‘late to the pot’ daffodils are just as happy in their pots as they were in their nets in the garage - only time will tell!

Both the terraces in front of the house and the views beyond were worth the visit, and even from the outside you can see just how well this would work for a wedding venue - picturesque grounds, the bandstand for the ceremony and plenty of spaces for the guests and the wedding party to enjoy throughout the day. We didn’t go inside, but from the chandeliers I glimpsed through the window, I think that will be pretty special too.

I did spot some young lupins, and while they reemerge in spring it did feel kind of early. They’re another favourite of mine, but one that I didn’t have much joy with in our previous garden, I think because of the number of trees, and snails too I’m sure. It was good to see these though, and the drops of water they were hanging onto in their centre.

On one side of the terrace I was drawn to a planting of trees, some of which looked they were ‘alight’ with the sun streaming through them - how glorious? I was very taken with these and later learnt they were paperback maples, so well named!

Next we headed through woodland towards the temple, passing pine cones at eye level, plentiful snowdrops growing in the grass and walking through the tall trees - many of which looked as if they had plenty of mistletoe balls taking up lodging.

My mistletoe suspicions were confirmed later in our walk around the grounds, as this much smaller tree was also playing host - though I can’t help but think that the mistletoe was a little bit lazier than the ones we’d seen before, or maybe it was just more vain and wanted to be in a position to be admired.

This European Chesnut tree also looked magnificent in the sun, helped too by the green moss colouring some of its stripes - it really was quite striking.

Heading back towards the gardens we stopped to admire this old gnarly tree, which if you look more closely you’ll see its crown is covered in what looks like lead. We presume to stop any further damage to it, but I’m not sure. It did make for a peculiar sight, though I’m sure when the tree is in leaf it’s hardly noticeable at all.

But just look at those skies, spring really is on its way.

NGS Open Gardens at Floral Media

A while back now I signed up to the National Garden Scheme newsletter, and when it arrives in my inbox I often (but not always) check to see if there are any gardens open near me. I got lucky back in 2014 (I can’t believe it was so long ago!) when a couple of private houses in Blackheath opened their gardens, and I went along to have a look at their gardens, and to pick up some tips on what plants thrived in the local area. It was great - I remember leaving with cake, and a plant and the care instructions for it. It was a pelargonium, I forget its name, and it did survive for quite while after, even a winter but then I clearly got ahead of myself and it was no more. But happy memories of the chance to look around a space that’s not usually open.

But I digress. Another newsletter arrived recently and this time I checked to see if there would be more gardens opening near our new home in Nottinghamshire.

And there was.

A garden less than 10 miles, 15 minutes by car was holding their annual open day imminently, no booking required. So that’s how we found ourselves at Floral Media, along with 501 other people for charity. Being a complete newbie to the area, I’d struck lucky. Floral Media is a 15 acre site which has been developed over twenty years. It’s not open to the public on a daily basis but provides workshops in horticulture and floristry, as well supplying sustainably grown flowers to florists and flower arrangers.

And it is a beautiful space. It combines a home and business and showcases an abundance of talent.

Despite the look of those dark clouds in the pictures, there was very little rain - just a few spots. But there was plenty of inspiration, and colour throughout the space. The upright wooden beams brought height to where we entered the gardens, and that’s something I’m already considering for our new garden, possibly not wood, but definitely something to add some structure. The paths also did that and led you through this densely planted space.

The paths led you round the garden as you’d expect, and sometimes even as you wouldn’t expect. There was plenty to see in every space,

The paths meandered past succulents in troughs and onto the vegetable garden, and then onto the meadow with a fun garden structure complete with seating inside the tower.

We weren’t done with the succulents yet, or the colour. I loved this chair housing the coleus, it worked here but I’m not sure there’s enough persuasion to replicate this in our own garden.

The front garden was full of hollyhocks and insects inspecting them closely.

Isn’t that table great? It was in the Jungle Room, which was the only room of the house that was also open - and that was a real treat. Next up for us was to go into the field and see where they grow their cut flowers, but as we passed this area of flowering plants that were most past their best, I was struck that even these looked great and in keeping with the whole space.

The field was something else. Rows of flowers, and a couple of poly tunnels with more flowers in. What a space.

Wasn’t I lucky to spot this? And even better I’ve already spotted another garden close by which is opening on Sundays in August, so I’m hoping that we’ll get along to one of those openings too.