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Tulips

April 25, 2010 By 6 Comments
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Today we are looking at the lovely tulip.

Words to describe tulips could be –

  • Cheerful
  • Elegant
  • Showy
  • Colourful

What words would you use to describe this flower?

In the language of flowers, the tulip means –

  • Beautiful eyes
  • Fame
  • Love

Interesting facts:

  • There are over 109 species, with approximately 3,000 different varieties in the tulip family the Liliaceae.
  • If you buy tulips as cut flowers, they will continue to grow in a vase.
  • The first tulips originated as a wildflower in Central Asia. It was in the 17th century that tulips was introduced to Europe. Tulips were so popular in Holland that some special varieties became very expensive to buy; it could quite easily cost the same as buying a house!
  • The Flower Design Institute have provided a useful video on how to care and arrange tulips. Please visit their website for further tips and hints for arranging beautiful displays of flowers.

There are 3 flowering times –

  • Early flowering – March – April
  • Mid season flowering – April -May
  • Late flowering – May
  • There are 12 viruses that can affect tulips, causing problems with the flowers and leaves, as well as problems with growth. The RHS provide a useful information page to help you notice symptoms and give advice on how you can help improve the health of your tulips – Tulips Viruses
  • This bulbous plant is lovely to see in spring, with its amazing range of colours and patterns at various heights from the tall and elegant, to the striking compact variety.
  • Tulips can often be seen in our local parks and roundabout displays as well as a garden favourite.

White and Green Tulips Greeting Card

I have been very fortunate to see the wonderful tulip farms and gardens  in Holland when I was a child. It is something I would like to return to and see again, as it left me speechless, admiring the fields of rich colour.

Daffodils and Tulips Holland Tulips Tulips in Holland

Above 3 images of Tulips and daffodils from Holland, are taken by my Dad from one of our trips.

I have been enjoying various gardens in Dorset and Hampshire admiring this beauty. There are so many different varieties it’s hard to choose a favourite, do you have a favourite?

Tulips can be grown successfully in containers and spring borders. They often provide a sense of structure to a garden border, and mixes well with other plants. I have particularly enjoyed gardens that have concentrated on a green and white colour scheme, with white tulips, daffodils and snowflakes dotted around green foliage. This provides a cool restful scene. An example of this can be seen at Apple Court Gardens in Hampshire, which we will be writing a blog post about our visit very soon.

If you would like to visit a garden to admire this lovely varied flower, the following is a small selection of gardens and farms recommended to see tulips.

  • Keukenhof in Holland has some 32 acres of Tulips!
  • Pashley Manor Gardens in Sussex have a tulips festival, running from the 23rd April –  3rd May. They have some 23,000 tulips to admire!

Spring colour at Kew Gardens

Where to buy Tulips

All garden centres sell tulips, but if you are looking for a specialist grower –

At Nita Joy Craft Design we have some special personalised tulip cards for a variety of occasions, or add your personal message.

We will also have some tulip designs available for kitchen splashbacks through My Kitchen Store, which we will be announcing soon!

Orange tulips and narcissus good luck cardWherever you live, there is sure to be a garden near you where you can enjoy the beautiful tulip.

Enjoy!

We would love to hear your recommended places to see Tulips so we can share them with our blog readers.

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A visit to East Lambrook Manor Gardens

February 23, 2010 By 3 Comments
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Do you like snowdrops?

If your reply was yes, then I recommend a visit to East Lambrook Manor Gardens in Somerset.

As a part of a new series looking at various gardens to visit throughout the seasons of the year, we visited this garden while we were away on holiday last week.

East Lambrook Manor has been a garden that I have wanted to visit for a long time.

Margery Fish’s garden style is seen as a true example of English cottage gardening, with many gardeners eager to learn from her experience and plant expertise, adding to their garden designs.

In her book ‘A Flower For Every Day’ first published in 1964, Graham Rice who wrote the book’s foreword in 2000, described Margery’s gardening style as -

‘She believed that even in gardens of relatively modest size and limited resources, plants should, and could, be chosen to provide flowers and a fascinating garden prospect on every day of the year.’

(Quote from A Flower For Every Day, Author Margery Fish, Foreword by Graham Rice, year 2000,  B.T Batsford)

As our gardens get smaller, we can apply these same principles in our gardens today.

This garden holds a specialist collection of snowdrops and geraniums.

There have been three new varieties of snowdrops discovered since the year 2000 with the wonderfully named –

  • Galanthus Dodo Norton in 2000,
  • Galanthus Lambrook Greensleeves in 2001
  • and last but not least the Galanthus Sir Henry B-C in 2006

Garden details:

Entry price – £4.50.  RHS Members – Free (February, March, September, October)

Opening times – 10 am – 5 pm

Everyday throughout February and May- 17th July

Tuesday – Saturday throughout March – April and 20th July – October

Please check with them before you travel

Disabled Access – It has limited disabled access as it is a small garden with small paths and has a terraced and gravel areas. The area known as the Ditch and woodland area is suitable for wheelchairs and those with limited mobility. They have a detailed disability access statement, for those wishing to know more.

There is also a unisex disabled toilet.

Plant Nursery they have a small plant shop, with a variety of plants grown in the garden.

Parking there is a free car park across a small road in front of the gardens, with some disabled spaces.

Eating facilities there is a small café that offers coffee, fruit juices and cake.

There is a wonderful pub  - The Rose and Crown which is 5 mins walk away which offers a warm, friendly service with a wonderful menu that has options for gluten free, vegetarian and vegan meals.

I had  a yummy cauliflower, broccoli and cheese bake and Matt had what he calls the best steak and kidney pie he has ever had!

Review

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the garden. We were fortunate in that the weather was also lovely after a week of rain and snow. The collection of snowdrops was wonderful to see, and to be able to learn about the many different varieties made the visit even more special.

We loved the Galanthus Nivalis Blewbury Tart

and the pretty Galanthus Primrose Walburg that had yellow ovary (The section at the top of the flower head).

If you want to learn more about snowdrops, then I highly recommend this garden.

It’s not a garden to see thousands of snowdrops, but one that shows these beautiful plants in the best light.  It’s not really a garden for young children as it is a small specialist garden, with small paths.

Due to the cold weather we have been having, snowdrops have been quite late this year, so there is still time to admire this beauty.

There was also a magnificent display of crocuses on the manor’s front lawn, so don’t miss this lovely display surrounding the tree.

As this is a specialist plants garden, this garden deserves a visit throughout the seasons of the year.

They are in the middle of restoring the gardens, so we are looking forward to seeing the changes over time.

We will be back for a return visit.

Garden address:

East Lambrook Manor Gardens,

South Petherton,

Somerset

TA13 5HH

Multi-map


I was recently given a flip video as a birthday present and I will be using it to show highlights of our garden visits.

I have put together a small video to give you a little insight into what you can expect from the garden. I apologise for the video as it’s my first attempt (I got a bit carried away with the word variety LOL, and hoping to improve the quality) but I hope it is useful to you.

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