Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wisley

Today I went to Wisley. I had such a good day... It was a bit of a bonus really. My husband is currently working near there and for practical reasons I needed to drop him off by car today, so the opportunity just arose.

I got there early so I had a little drive through the narrow lanes around there. I went over a couple of very picturesque canal bridges, round many windy corners, saw a ruined church... it was all very lovely, reminded me a bit of Constable's pictures. I hadn't realised from the main road route that there was as much countryside just there.

I will show you some of my pictures. I got terribly excited and just snapped away at whatever caught my eye, so they're not great and they don't include many of the major features, just the things I liked most on this visit. I've decided to do it over a few days because there are rather a lot.

First off: from the car park (as you can tell) this is the back of The Laboratory: I think the slightly ricketty-looking greenhouse at first floor level caught my eye, considering how many sophisticated and extensive greenhouses there are further into the garden... [Edit - actually I don't think it's ricketty, but it still looks amusingly out of place amongst the mock tudor chimneys]



Then I paid my entrance fee (£8:50, the best value attraction I've been to for as long as I can remember). My first sight was then these glorious agapanthuses:



In the last year or so I have been strongly attracted to very simply plantings like this.

Every time I go to Wisley I follow much the same route. It's a bit of a ritual to me. I look at nearly everything, even though I know certain things will be more in season than others. I find that as well as seasonality, my taste and interest will have shifted a bit too.

So the next thing I see after this is the huge double borders. This was the first visit in which I managed to see any appeal in them. Previously they have been either in early growth, or even if full-grown, have seemed just a great lumpy mess to me. To me, the secret is to look along them, even squinting slightly. I find they appeal at the level of a picture, mainly through colours. So if you walk right up to them and peer at them, it's just like dots on a screen.

This was my favourite plant in them, clematis kaiu:



And these were my favourite parts of the borders:



(I'm afraid I have shrunk them so you can't see much detail - you will do as you're told, reader!)



Tomorrow, the trial fields and other adventures.

5 comments:

  1. Very inspiring stuff Emily. Do keep the photos in a prominent position, Now that winter is on its way it is easy to forget planting like that - you need a constant reminder for next spring.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Emily, what wonderful pictures! I can get some ideas for my garden. I love the first image, too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clearly a great day we nearly met up as I was there with my daughter Tuesday.

    Lovely photos

    ReplyDelete
  4. How fabulous. I've wanted to go to Wisley for years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. OH, those borders make your heart throb, don't they?

    ReplyDelete

Hello, and thank you for reading and wanting to comment. I'm sorry that spam has made it necessary for me to monitor comments, but please feel welcome despite this.