Broadleigh Gardens and Hestercombe- A visit with 'Blooming Fun'

With WI 'Blooming Fun' friends we set off last week on a two garden tour outing.  The first and for my inner 'plantswoman' Broadleigh Gardens was a dream.  

With its beautiful lawns surrounded by woodland beds, and bulbs growing through grass under the Cathedral ceiling effect of a magnificent Cherry, as well as a long double bed of alpine plants growing alongside a beautiful old brick wall, the range number of different and interesting plants, meant that the visit with a band of generalist gardeners was far too short for me!

Deciduous flowering currants were used to great effect and nicely underplanted with bulbs, this one shone out.  I even wrote to the owner to find out its name, but the response was it was grown from a cutting from a friend's garden meant that I was grateful to fellow Blooming Fun Carolyn, and also Facebook for identifying it as  Ribes Gordonianum, also known as ‘Gordon’s Currant’ or ‘Beatonii’, and is a deciduous shrub that is a hybrid between Ribes Odoratum and Ribes Sanguineum.

We were free to have a look through the nursery part of the garden, where there were of course beds of specialities being grown for sale.

Scilla hughii

At first I thought these were a 'superior' selection of Scilla peruviana which I have in the front garden.  At the sale area I found a group of three pots with the label Scilla hughii, and bought just one.  Scilla hughii is endemic to a small island off Sicily, it has broader leaves and the flowers as described on some sites as being on 'steroids'.  The Rare Plants site explains the difference clearly.  I am going to keep growing in it a pot for a couple of years, as I being it will they make side bulbs and I hope to plant up a group of three.  I wish I had bought all three! I did buy three plants but just one of each, of course to be propagated in due course.

It was a first time visit for me to Hestercombe, which is a garden on a grand scale, with lake, fabulous trees, extensive views towards the surrounding countryside and a great parterre.  It was probably well before its best time as far as the gardens were concerned.  Wisteria time would be probably the start for the gardens.

Hestercombe is where we chose to have lunch, and my 'cooked breakfast' which included to my surprise home make beans in tomatoes on sourdough was excellent.