A day of gardens

Today we stay closer to ‘home’. The weather forecast is - again - less than favourable, but in a day of broken sunshine and very heavy showers we manage visits to two of the most beautiful gardens. 

We start in Great Dixter, a glorious Arts and Crafts garden full of orchid-studded flower meadows and dazzling borders of mixed planting. It has a beautiful ‘wildness’ which I absolutely love, and despite threatening skies, the warm sunshine makes these glorious flowers sing. 

I’m almost worried that the gardens of the more famous Sissinghurst will now disappoint. Like Prospect Cottage of two day’s ago, this is a garden I have longed to visit, and thankfully Vita Sackville-West’s creation is everything I’d hoped for, its floral ‘rooms’ arranged in themes or colours each a visual and sensory delight. 

As we arrive, the heavens open and we take refuge in the tea rooms, but as the weather clears we have the chance to roam the gardens in bright sunshine with the added beauty of raindrops on the leaves and flowers. At every step, there’s another stunning bloom to capture, so progress is inevitably slow! 

I love this cornucopia of planting, the freedom and generosity of style. As Vita herself put it: 

I like muddling things up; and if an herb looks nice in a border, then why not grow it there? Why not grow anything anywhere so long as it looks right where it is? That is, surely, the art of gardening.”

But to have that vision, that creativity ….. 

Once again I take so many photos - just one garden would have been inspiration enough, but two ….! I’m happier with my shots of single flowers than with those of the gardens overall, so my main today’s a nigella - though the bearded Iris comes a close second! 

Thanks again for your kind responses to yesterday’s Seven Sisters - all very much appreciated!