East Anglia Reveals Garden Gems
The five Gardens in East Anglia selected by our tour organisers Di & Neil Cave were spread across Norfolk, Suffolk & North Essex and ranged from a large domestic garden to the grounds of a stately home.
The five Gardens in East Anglia selected by our tour organisers Di & Neil Cave were spread across Norfolk, Suffolk & North Essex and ranged from a large domestic garden to the grounds of a stately home.
Dispite a road closure & thanks to our sat-nav’s, we all assemble at our first garden at Farleigh House where Andrew Wooley, the Head Gardener, took us on a brilliant tour.
With the forecast for torrential rain and winds of 40mph, the day didn’t sound too promising on the weather front.
Our first trip of 2017 got off to a brilliant start, the weather either side of the day was not great, but on the day it was glorious.
Iford Manor has a house and garden to die for. If ever there was a house and garden that was in a perfect setting, surely this must be it. The both are settled comfortably into the side of a valley that looks down over the gently curving River Frome.
In April EBTS visited some great gardens in Surrey – unfortunately the weather wasn’t brilliant, in fact it was very wet at times. So by special request Topiarius Editor, Caroline Foley and I went to visit Trudie Proctor at The Old Rectory for a second look at the garden.
We all meet up at Rockcliffe Gardens, where Emma Keswick the owner and designer of the garden showed us round. It is a stunning garden even in the rather damp weather that greeted us at the start of the visit.
Time for the first EBTS UK garden visits of the year and the good old British weather brought us heavy April Showers! Still this didn’t stop us enjoying three gardens in Surrey.
The late-summer trip was carefully designed to include some of the most beautiful gardens in Florence, all incorporating fine examples of box and topiary. As part of the trip EBTS also visited Romiti & Giusti near Lucca, a specialist nursery exporting topiary sculptures all over the world: here you could order any topiary form, from teacup to tennis player.
A morning visit to Rustling End Cottage in Codicote, with a wealth of good planting and cushions of box, was followed by a special private visit to the gardens at Bride Hall, rarely open to the public, with topiary, a parterre and famous water features.