When planning Garden Tours, there are 'star' places, gardens or nurseries that we want to visit. When planning this visit, Fibrex Nurseries and Barnsdale Gardens were the reason we visited the North Cotswolds/ East Midlands. Fibrex Nurseries is a fabulous place, THE Pellie nursery, with the National Collection of pelargoniums. Watching coverage of Hampton Court last night, Carol Klein stood in front of a stand with fantastic pelargonium display and Pellie Cake, it must have been the Fibrex stand.
Barnsdale Gardens were originally created by Geoff Hamilton, former Gardeners' World presenter, this is what the Independent's Obituary said about Barnsdale:
'On this week's Gardeners' World he had been due to guide viewers on a tour of his large garden at Barnsdale in Rutland, partly financed by the BBC. It was also his home, where he lived with his second wife Lynda. Although the public are seldom allowed into Barnsdale it is one of the most famous gardens in the country because Hamilton's demonstrations of gardening techniques were filmed there. It is made up of several distinct garden areas, many constructed in front of the cameras for the benefit of viewers.'
Barnsdale is now certainly open to the public, and comprises 38 gardens spread over 8 acres, it's a fascinating experience wandering round all the gardens, and quite hard work after visiting Canons Ashby in the morning and then driving for 2 hours in quite extreme heat.
The first photo shows a Victorian Compost bin, useful to use left over bricks to make these, and they do look very attractive. As the label says, they aren't as efficient as some other compost bins and have to be demolished and rebuilt when the compost is ready to be used.
I haven't made a note of the gardens, so am just presenting them here as attractive gardens
This was a lovely display of pelargoniums from Fibrex Nurseries!
The list of gardens can be found here if you click on the gardens, you can see photos of each garden
above the Hosta collection beside the Penstemon Garden
above a delightful honeysuckle Lonicera Etrusca 'Michael Rosse' and below one of the many fantastic roses
The tulip tree was flowering wonderfully
I have clicked on gardens, and can't find out which this garden is, but it was beautifully presented
I also liked this garden
you can see the lettuces in the garden above, and here's a close up of them
some lovely spinach
and this Deutzia x Hybrida 'Magicien'
Nice brickwork
and pebblework
More pellies
more roses
Barnsdale Gardens are well worth visiting, quite a marathon to get round at the end of a busy day, and the big plus for me was that in the plant sales I found a Darmera peltate which even Wisley didn't have for sale.
The other attraction in the area is Rutland Water, sadly lack of time only allowed looking at the water, but definitely a place to return to.
Barnsdale Gardens were originally created by Geoff Hamilton, former Gardeners' World presenter, this is what the Independent's Obituary said about Barnsdale:
'On this week's Gardeners' World he had been due to guide viewers on a tour of his large garden at Barnsdale in Rutland, partly financed by the BBC. It was also his home, where he lived with his second wife Lynda. Although the public are seldom allowed into Barnsdale it is one of the most famous gardens in the country because Hamilton's demonstrations of gardening techniques were filmed there. It is made up of several distinct garden areas, many constructed in front of the cameras for the benefit of viewers.'
The first photo shows a Victorian Compost bin, useful to use left over bricks to make these, and they do look very attractive. As the label says, they aren't as efficient as some other compost bins and have to be demolished and rebuilt when the compost is ready to be used.
The other attraction in the area is Rutland Water, sadly lack of time only allowed looking at the water, but definitely a place to return to.
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