Taking 'wall' inspiration from Powis Castle

In this final post in the series from our visit to Powis Castle I’m sharing how the terraces and walls have inspired me, and how I’m hoping to repeat (in the loosest sense) what I saw here at home. We have the original farmyard wall as the back boundary of our garden, and it’s one that’s full of character that I want to make the most of, to enhance but not to cover entirely.

I have two climbing roses, my pink Gertrude Jekyll and the cream Claire Austin and my long term plan has been to grow these up the wall, so whenever we visit a walled garden I’m always looking out for how they grow plants along their walls. It’s no surprise that most use a tensioned wire, but it’s always good to check the fixings and distances used. I mean, these guys are professional gardeners and there’s plenty I can learn from them.

What I noticed, and liked, at Powis was how they were growing their apple trees. Instead of espalier plants, where branches are trained horizontally these were tall and thin, and growing three in a group gave impact in much the same way as grouping things in threes.

Though of course I won’t quite have that much height and I definitely won’t have a castle in the distance!

It’s likely though that I will have tensioned wires similar to this, which pleases me greatly.

Though my ceanothus are much more unruly than these, and it isn’t a plant that I’ll even be attempting to grow in such a way.

And if I’m lucky, I’ll also get a robin (or other small garden bird - our regulars are wrens and wagtails) to enjoy it just as much as I’m sure I will.

The orangery at Powis Castle

It’s been a little while since I left you admiring the terraces here, so let’s pop back today and check out the orangery - and I do love a good orangery, thankfully there’s a superb one nearby at Belton House our nearest National Trust property.

But back to Powis, and that view.

I had a good feeling about this space as we saw the multiple pots of tulips as we got closer.

And I wasn’t disappointed, though at first glance you may be wondering what on earth I was thinking.

But just look at the plants.

Though this one getting ready to flower did remind me of one of those plastic hands on a stick, and I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Who’d have thought this peculiar shaped thing could turn into such a beauty?

There were places to sit and enjoy, and I particularly liked this pale yellow flower as it cascaded out of its pot.

I was intrigued to see the money tree flowering, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in flower before - and I used to have a very large one on my open porch a couple of houses ago. That is until someone stole it when I was out - to this day I still don’t know how, it was huge and extremely heavy. But I guess if someone wants something badly enough, they’ll find a way.

Isn’t it a great space?

As we headed back up towards the castle we spotted these brick arches, and thought we should explore.

It was another great space, though I’m not sure what to call these as it didn’t seem to be referenced on our guide map.

You can just feel how cool it is here can’t you? I think in someways I preferred this space to the orangery, though they were completely different in feel and in planting.

And then I realised I wasn’t the only one enjoying the view, and smiled to myself once more.

The terraced borders and magnolias at Powis Castle

I ended my post on the giant hedges in this garden teasing you with magnolias and more flowers, and I won’t disappoint. But in that time I’m sure our own gardens have more than sprung into life, I really don’t know where the time goes, but anyway…

The borders are terraced with each mostly having a beautiful brick wall as their background, this immediately struck me as an ideal place for inspiration for my own garden, and I’ll share more in a separate post on how their use of plants against the wall has inspired me. These borders though are deep, gorgeous but deep and that means a lot of plants and probably in my own garden not an awful lot of room left for the grass!

They were full of fresh green spring lushness - whether that was the new growth, or the zing that the euphorbias bring.

But there were also plenty of magnolias. Their scent filling the air as we got close, such a joy.

I might have also found an euphorbia that MOH could get on board with - these orange flowering more spicy looking plants bring a less usual spring colour to the party, so I’ll be on the lookout for something like these, even though I will still continue to love the zesty lime green versions.

There was also the hint of the peonies to come, right next to the joyfulness of spring that is tulips.

And this spring these Imperial Fritillarias seem to have called my name - I’m seeing them everywhere, and they were even on the front cover of one of the RHS magazines that arrived in the post, and have subsequently become my phone’s wallpaper. So it’s safe to say that at some point I’ll be having my own plants, I just hope they look as good as these - and the ones on my phone!

Ah, more magnolias - such luscious pink flowers this time and such glorious scent.

But the irises and buddleia weren’t to be outdone and they each brought their own shade of purple to the borders.

But in springtime, it really was the magnolias at Powis Castle that stole my heart - it’s easy to see why isn’t it?