Open Garden

Today a local village was having an open garden day so a keen gardener friend and I went to revisit an amazing garden based round an old quarry featuring a pond but also many well established plants and trees. The rhododendrons were in full bloom and there was a riot of colour with quite a lot of unusual plants. The owner is one of my client friends so I have been  a few times.

We were studying an interesting old tree ( extra) with contorted branches and quite small leaves wondering what it was when a knowledgeable looking man came past. I asked him if he knew and he immediately said oh it is a New Zealand Southern Beech scientific name Nothofagus. It certainly didn’t look like anything we had seen before and nothing like our local beech trees. I wish I could remember the names of plants better - even the common ones !