Bicton Park Botanical Gardens - an Autumn Visit

 We were staying down at Budleigh Salterton for a few days, and on one of the drier afternoons we visit Bicton Park. Very much inspired by reading about the great plant hunters in the book 'Flower Hunters' by Mary Gribbin and John Gribbin, I was looking forward this time to looking at the trees, and hoping to find ones such as the Giant Redwood whose seed William Lobb brought back from his plant hunting trips.

Eventually we arrived at the Gardens but not before a wrong turning.

Focusing on the garden, glass houses and arboretum here are some of the wonderful views:

Towards the Italianate Gardens 

As we walked down the path on the far left of this picture I was very much taken by the large golden leaved conifer, and looking closely at the leaves and its form was intrigued as it reminded me of the golden leaved plant I had at home, in a pot. 

Contacting the garden with the tree outlined, I received identification: "It’s Latin name is Chamaecyparis pisifera Filifera Aurea' and it’s common name is Sawara Cypress."  Yes it is the very same!

Bicton Palm House

The Palm House predates the one at Kew, however it is still the second largest Palm House in the UK, build in the late 1820's a gift from John Rolle to his wife.  There was even a Date Palm with fruit, but this was one of the trees without a name label, probably because they did not want people eating the fruit!  How did I know it was a date?

Of course I had to have a tour of the other glass houses and garden.

The gardens have wonderful views and of course magnificent trees and borders and well worth a visit.

With their rarest tree on the site being this Cupressus chengiana var. jiangeensis. It is endemic to China where only one tree has been identified.

Thanks to Mr S who was incredibly patient and found places to sit whilst I revisited trees, or back tracked to view more closely trees that looking back I had not noticed. There were many Champion Trees which I may write about a later date. 

I mentioned at the start of this post that we had been misdirected.  Had we not been 'misdirected' by a student of the college, we would have missed this magnificent avenue leading from the Sidmouth Lodge to Flint Lodge. 

Bicton Park - Monkey Puzzle Tree lined Avenue

 At the gardens I would have liked a book with details of the plantings, the history of the gardens with as much background as possible.  A good big heavy book with lots of scholarly work, and I was prepared to spend all my 'holiday spending' on this book.  Sadly apart from the short guides, there was nothing.  On my return, searching on the internet I had a hard time and was sadly disappointed that there is nothing which met my needs.  I did find 'The Trees of Bicton' by N D G James, a 1969 Edition.  Together with a direct question via Facebook to the Gardens, which they kindly answered after a few days, the book has been an excellent source of information with extracts from the diaries of the Head Gardeners making for excellent reading.

About the Araucaria araucana or Monkey Puzzle Tree from 'The Trees of Bicton':

From seed received from South America in 1837, and Bicton received seedlings in 1839/40, in 3 x 3.5 inch pots (No 60) which were moved on to 6 x6 inch pots(No 32), and except for protection in the dead of winter, the Monkey Puzzle Trees were ready for planting, and were just knocked out of their No 32 pots and planted in the avenue,  protected by little wire cages, in 1844. 

In 1842 Mr Veitch visited the avenue to discuss the plating of 25 tress on either side of the avenue, and positions were was marked out, allowing 54 feet between each tree, in a double row 63 feet apart.  

Today some of the trees are much larger and I wonder how much replanting has taken place. The book has a list of all the trees with height and girth at 5 feet, gave the largest tree No 10 on the South side, in 1968 as 85 foot high, and 11' 4.5'' girth. Latest found sizes for 2013 gives the height at 95 feet and girth of 13.5 feet.