West Dean Gardens

Last Saturday was a perfect day for visiting West Dean Gardens. The sun shone brightly and the gardens were pared back to their winter skeletons. Instead of looking at colour and magnificence, we saw the structure of the garden, nothing much needs to be said about the photos, it was easy to achieve good ones.
I think this is my favourite:

there were a few more outdoor ones which worked well I think:

 inside the walled garden

 a view to a bench

 The  impressive 100 metre long pergola was designed by Harold Peto and needed extensive restoration following the 1987 storm. It is host to many varieties of magnolia, clematis, rose and honeysuckle, and below a view of the pergola from the side

One of the most amazing features of West Dean gardens are the pruned fruit trees. They are pruned into many different shapes by some genius gardeners. The one below is a goblet shape

 here's one trained against a wall

 this is another shape

 and the very best, look at these. Pruning has been elevated to an amazing art form

 I saw this explanation of a pruning style in one of the sheds;

The glasshouses were also well worth a visit:

 Here's a cleaned out one above, and below a luscious one

 Below kale seedlings sown on the 6th of December for planting out in the vegetable garden in the spring

 More seedlings coming up

 And look how healthy these Aeoniums are. Mine have been eaten by caterpillars and are now bare stems with small leaves sprouting from the top of them

 Lovely Echeveria

 Lots of succulents in here

 A tropical house

Finally, I love photographing this beautiful flooring in a summerhouse at one end of the pergola, it's made from horse's teeth