Yesterday was a beautiful day.
Yesterday The Babety woke at 6.30am rather than 5am.
Yesterday I was not giving a 'talk'.*
Yesterday my Rosa 'Scentimental' came out.
Yesterday I went to this seriously yummy NGS garden opening.
I'm going to declare and interest here. Jenny and Ricky Raworth's garden is one of my favourite gardens in the whole wide world. This couple are totally nuts about their beautiful garden, but not to the exclusion of everything else (there are lovely daughters and grandchildren etc to be bonkers about too)...anyway, they always give superb garden opening. Not only is the garden always spectacular, but both are always there to answer questions and show you round, and generally be seriously charming...oh, and there's another reason. It begins with 'CA' and ends in 'KE'.
There are so many elements to this haven - a spectacular sunken area at the front, with masses of stone troughs planted up with alpines and semps, a conservatory packed full of Pelargoniums, the most sumptuous, deep beautiful borders bursting with scented loveliness, including massed Crambe cordifolia (of which I am hideously jealous), fantastic clipped hedges and a knot parterre. They also have the MOST perfect lawn EVER.
Jenny says she never fed her Irises (here, Iris Jane Phillips), until this year, thinking they'd hate it, coming as they do from dry rocky 'bakey' type places. But they've tripled in volume since she did...so feed away everybody.
Don't you just love the box cones - they look just perfect for leaning against with a morning paper.
Here (above right) is an extraordinary geranium. It's called G. x oxianum 'Thurstoniuanum' and the petals are all rolled up - a bit like Tulipa acuminata
Above left is a spectacular Datura with some of Jenny's much loved Plectranthus and a lovely small person
Here, above is Jenny's favourite Poppy - it's deeper red than 'Pattie's Plum' and it's called 'Medallion'
...Here is Jenny, with a background of gorgeous R. 'Constance Spry'
And here is the Babety in one of my old dresses, made by my granny.
Every time I visit, it's thrilling because there's always something new, but more than that, there's this lovely feeling of happiness and family which you can't learn, or buy or fake. Yes, I'll take that Papaver, and the room full of pelargoniums, and that passion for plectranthus and the perfect lawn, and that extraordinary geranium, and the massive crambe but more than that, I want the feeling.... Trust me to want to copy something indescernible rather than an actual thing....typical.
Apart from urging you to visit Jenny and Ricky's garden, which you can do in July (see here for details) here's a plug for Jenny's garden days which are brilliant.
- Here's my friend Anni with lovely lemony cupcakes