West Dean Gardens in West Sussex are fabulous, and well worth a visit, whatever time of year, but last week they were so beautiful. I'll start with the cutting garden, situated in the walled garden, this took my breath away as I entered the garden and saw the profusion of colour of Zinnias, Rudbeckias, Cosmos, Sunflowers, Cornflowers, Persicarias and Agastache. This is a photo of my fist sighting of the flowers:
Close up of the Zinnias
More Zinnias with huge bronze sunflowers in the background
A personal favourite below, Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy', I have managed to overwinter mine and love them, although mine aren't as luscious as these
Periscaria below, another great favourite
Red Zinnias clustered together looked great
and so did the pink ones
but look at these Rudbeckias, these are Denver Daisy
and these Caramel Mixed
from there we wandered round the vegetable garden which is perfectly displayed
and just look at the array of succulents on raised shelving, more favourites of mine in there as well
The glasshouses are also breathtakingly beautiful inside. Here's the tropical house with a fantastic array of 'houseplants'
I need more Begonias I realise, seeing lots together
And another glasshouse with exuberant flowering Begonias
The long borders were also well stocked with interesting plants, lots of blue and yellow
the yellow above provided by Kniphofia and the most beautiful Solidago, I am usually very sniffy about golden rod, regarding it as a weed, but this one has the most wonderful flowers and bees love it
There's also the most beautifully trained fruit around the edges of the walled garden
I know I've uploaded too many photos already, but the Agapanthus was fabulous
and the pergola is fantastic, it's 300 feet long, and beautifully planted all along the length of it
the pond half way along is rather a lovely feature
this was an attempt to photograph the whole 300 feet from the summerhouse with its floor made from inlaid horse's teeth.
A final photo from West Dean Gardens of the beautiful Hydrangeas on display
The day was made perfect by a visit to nearby Rumsey Gardens Nursery, established over 50 years ago, they are a cornucopia of delightful plants. I bought a great selection but missed out on the Corsican Borage which I forgot to retrieve on the way to the till. I'll leave that for another day. One final photo of the grasses in their garden:
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