Galanthus ‘David Baker’
Galanthus ‘Pieces of Eight’
Plants in flower or just barking at Bodnant Gardens
The flowers of this rhododendron dauricum are of course essential to its beauty.
Wintersweet, or more precisely Chimonanthus praecox, has an insignificant flower, making its impact with the sweetness of its perfume, carried well in the cold Welsh air.
This time the Acer griseum provides the colourful bark.
And the birch, Betula ermanii ‘Grayswood Hill’.
Rijnveldt’s Early Sensation was planted all over the extensive gardens and are truly one for the early garden.
Last year I very nearly bought the hellebore, ‘Penny’s Pink’. This year I wish I had.
Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Feuerzauber’, and the warm brightness of ‘Iwato’ through the sunlight.
Finally, as I draw an end to what amounts to a shopping list, a lovely fresh euphorbia, characias ‘Wulfenii’.
Bodnant Winter Garden
The Winter Garden at Dunham Massey
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500 years and still going strong, the oldest oak tree at Dunham Massey |
In 2007 the National Trust commenced transforming Dunham Massey’s 7 acre wilderness of thicket and brambles into a spectacular winter garden underneath the towering beech and oak trees. The season must be milder than our Yorkshire garden for the plants were two weeks more advanced. I’d taken my new Sony Macro Lens for the close-up work but was tempted to use it for all the shots. Here’s the results and I can recommend the lens, and garden.
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The dwarf iris was the first test for the lens |
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Beech, Birch and Beauty |
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Camellia ‘High Hat’ looking far too exotic for the winter garden |
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Hellebore, Ashwin Garden Hybrid |
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Lonicera purpusii Winter Beauty (Honeysuckle) makes up for its diminutive flower with the size of its perfume |
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Snowdrops in profusion |
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Hamamelis (witch hazel) |