This was a different garden to anything seen on this trip. It was inspired by Monet's Garden and it has featured on Gardeners World. Our guide told us the interviewer was extremely nervous as she did not like water and boats and she had to carry a four hundred thousand pound camera around with her. She has not been back!!!
The garden is not far from Chester but it seemed miles away in the countryside with horses riding by and the infrequent train service passed their place.
It was created out of wetlands around a pool area on the edge of the Delemere Forest, a royal forest. The garden is in a valley and they get very heavy frosts in winter and sometimes snow so everything has to be hardy. I would describe it as an informal garden.
The garden was developed by the parents but both sons have trained in garden design and horticulture so they run the nursery side of the business and their wives run the cafe and live locally. It is a real family business which they obviously love.
The boys have built the bridges around the walkway over to the island and created small plantings of specialised plants in the swamp lands. The main waterway is a stream which runs right through the property and has swans, Moorhead, and kingfishers plus three types of woodpeckers live there.Willow trees,elders,a monkey puzzle tree and three types of rare bamboos grow here. Quercus Forest Pansy seemed happy in these conditions and he had a rare redwood growing here of a golden variety.
They specialize in unusual plants in the nursery gardens which is beautifully set out and a credit to them.They had a lot of salvias,lilies and astlibes of all colours and some of them were very tall growing.They had a Waterlilly pond and chicken coops so plenty of interesting nooks a crannies along the way to explore. Magical.
The gardens also display lots of Candelabra Primulas,astilbe varieties, hostas,hydrangeas, ferns and trees which like damp conditions. It all created a very peaceful place with all round interest with places to sit and watch the birds or look at the lake. Not sure I was keen for the blue boat though. It looked awhile since it had been used.
It was rather eerie and magical under the trees and they were hosting a production of Twelfth Night next month which would be a great setting for the performance.
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