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Chelsea Flower Show
May 22-30th, 2007
May 22nd, Tuesday
Our guests were met upon arrival at the
airport and taken to their hotel, the NH Harrington Hall Hotel - a wonderful
4 star located in the exclusive Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. We
met later on this evening for our Welcome dinner.
May 23rd, Wednesday Private Gardens Visit
After breakfast, we headed over to the Museum of Garden History and had time
to wander around the garden, enjoy a cup of coffee and take pictures. The
Tradescants are buried here and you can see the tradescania blooming its
little heart out. I was taken with the old garden implements…in fantastic
shape. Look at that ceramic watering can – it must have weighed a ton when
filled, and the wardian cases…gosh, I could have brought it all home with
me! I was also very pleased to see a wonderful picture of Gertrude Jekyll
there as well. We boarded the coach for our first day together visiting 4
very special private gardens under the National Gardens Scheme. Most gardens
which open for the Scheme are privately owned and open just a few times each
year. More than £20 million has been donated to charity since the NGS began
in 1927.
Just take a peek at the pictures of the beautiful gardens we had the
pleasure of visiting today…there is nothing that compares to being in a
garden!
Two gardens are opposite each other in the same road in Clapham. Our first
visit is to a country garden in London with a central maple tree surrounded
by innovative paving. Many alliums, tulips and spring woodlanders.
Our second visit is to a walled garden with formal layout softened by colour-themed
planting. Mediterranean-inspired terrace with many interesting pots. There
is a huge collection of clematis and climbing roses.
Our third garden is in Wimbledon, south-east facing with fine specimen
trees, informal layout and good ground cover planting. The new herb garden,
designed by Judith Sharpe, is raised using bricks to match the house and
features an armillary sphere sundial which bears significant family dates
and events.
We enjoyed a lovely lunch at a local restaurant in Wimbledon before heading
to our fourth garden, Springfield Lodge, where they had cakes and drinks for
us and we wandered around…what a delightful day we all enjoyed…
To read about the NGS
http://www.ngs.org.uk/aboutus.htm
We returned to our hotel for dinner this evening where we will chat about
our day at Chelsea and go through the Chelsea programme.
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