It only takes a few minutes to see something different, can you make out the frost on the grass?

Only a couple more minutes and there is our first proper frost for all to see, fantastic!

Sunrise doesn’t last long does it, only another couple of minutes and it was almost gone, beautiful while it lasted though.

At last, I have some leaves decorated with frost, Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens now has silver stripes down the side.

A frosted Chestnut leaf that has managed to escape being swept up and bagged to try and eradicate the leaf miner moth that lives inside it.

A few more leaves looking rather pretty with their added sparkle.

Definitely a frosted lawn, not to be walked on when it is like this, otherwise you leave footprints where the grass has died!

Why am I so excited by a bit of frost? Just after Christmas I sowed my Meconopsis seeds that I have kept in the fridge since last summer and they need a period of freezing temperatures to get them ready to start growing. They originate in Tibet, in the Himalayas, so are used to temperatures a lot colder than we ever have, I just hope that this period of sub zero temperatures is cold enough for them. I will leave them out a bit longer, for another couple of weeks,  then bring them into the conservatory, which is kept frost free,  they should then sprout  about 3 weeks later. That is the plan anyway and it has worked in previous years.  I was thinking that I might have to put the seed trays in the freezer if the mild weather had continued,  so  thank goodness we have had our frosts at last!

As some of you may know, away from the house, we have a circular area, half of which is in shade from about 10am onwards (bearing in mind that the sun rises at 4.30 or 5am in the summer so plants will have at least 5 hrs sun, that’s providing it shines !)  and this border has an underground stream running below, so is always damp. These red Primula candelabra “Inverewe” were photographed  in Scotland, but I managed to buy some plants from a nursery on Dartmoor, thanks to the book, The Plant Finder.

At the moment I have this border planted up with bog plants which are lovely in the spring and early summer, but then the freshness fades as the months go by. I’ve been thinking for quite some time now that it could be a lot better later in the year.There is far too much Alchemilla mollis which has seeded itself throughout the border, they can all go, ferns are spreading everywhere, at least half can go into the woodland and other plants are ready to be split and moved,  so now seems a good time to reorganise this area.

Out came paper and pencil and lists started to be made of all the plants that like damp ground in semi shade,and because the border is a semi circle, that were also the colours of the rainbow.

Candelabra primulas were the first choice because of all the colours available.

Primula alpicola are available in the indigo, violet range along with Primula florindae “Coppertones” for the orange section. Managed to find a nursery in Ireland selling this one, oh, the joys of shopping with a lap top and a debit card !!

Purple orchids for the violet coloured section, these are quite widely available from specialist nurseries.

Of course Meconopsis have to represent the blue in the rainbow.

That takes care of the early part of the year. There are already some iris in the border which can be split

and moved further back, for the yellow, blue and purple areas.

Next to flower would be the Astilbes, I have some red and purple ones that can be split and moved.

These would flower along side the red, orange and yellow crocosmias, with of course “Lucifer” starting off the rainbow. I think I will have to buy some Phlox for the lilac/purple areas and maybe some Monardas, Willow Gentians and Fillipendula.

These would flower along side red, blue and purple lobelias which are almost the last to start flowering in September. Just bought these from our local garden centre.

Most of these plants I already have and they just need splitting and moving. Others I have already started growing from seed – the primulas which I brought back from Scotland, have provided me with lots of seeds  and are now sprouting nicely.

Already in the border are various hostas and ferns, hostas can stay where they are and ferns can be moved to where the green section will be.

with Rogersias and a Rheum palmatum, some of the Rogersias will need moving.

It will take a couple of years for everything to settle in and start increasing, but in the mean time I can dream of my rainbow. Can anyone think of anything else I should add, apart from the crock of gold at the end !!!

This, as you know from the previous post, is Aigas House where we ate our meals in the baronial hall and had lectures, talks etc.

We all slept in a variety of log cabins in the grounds – this one is ours and there were red squirrels often seen on the trees here.

On our first day here, we were taken to see the “spiked rampion” which grows in the grounds. Almost over when we saw it, the flower spikes must have looked lovely when fully out. Apparantly it only grows in 8 locations in Sussex and at Aigas. Maybe it was introduced in Victorian times as a garden plant, but it doesn’t grow anywhere else in Scotland and is considered very rare.

We then walked to the loch on the estate which is home to a beaver family. These are captive beavers but the area is so huge that the beavers don’t know that they can’t get out.

This dam was made by the beavers on a stream coming into the loch.

There were lots of wild orchids in the woodlands surrounding the loch.

On the wall of the house is this skull of a Minke Whale, almost looks as if it is made of stone.

Next was an outing to Glen Strathfarrar to look for more wildflowers, but we also saw 3 golden eagles and some red deer. This lonesome pine and the mountain behind are used as the logo for Aigas.

Next day, as well as looking for wildflowers on the Black Isle we stopped at Chanonry Point to do some Dolphin watching. We were in luck, a cow and calf were hunting for fish in the bay or maybe the calf was having a hunting lesson. We got super sightings of them.

The sand dunes here were covered with Rosa rugosa – all white – hadn’t realised what a super smell it has!

Traffic islands at Chanonry Point were exquisitely planted with wild flowers and  a few garden escapees. This is a beautiful white campion, touched with purple, which contrasted beautifully with the Alchemilla mollis.

Another day we crossed over to the west coast to go garden visiting.

Our first garden was Inverewe on Loch Ewe and we were told before we got there that the Scottish National Trust, who own it, are short of money these days ( like everyone else) so we weren’t to expect too much. Not what I wanted to hear as I have wanted to come here for about 20 yrs, having read so much about it. This carving is of Osgood MacKenzie who made the garden in 1862.

The walled garden is the flagship area of Inverewe and looked very good indeed.

I very soon found the meconopsis and primulas that I love.

This I must try in my woodland, Cardiocrinum giganteum , seen here with Rogersias.

A beautiful planting of more Rogersias – super coloured flowers – another to look for when I get home.

Now down in the walled garden, which is mainly vegetables, but with this super herbacious border running along the back wall, which faces south in a curve which follows the curve of the bay. My verdict on the state of the garden – a lot better than we had been led to believe – maybe a bit tired in areas far away from the house and walled garden, but after all this is woodland planting so shouldn’t be pristine like the walled garden.

Our next garden was at the House of Gruinard on Gruinard Bay where we parked in a lay-by and walked down a hill with a stream to reach it. Apparantly we didn’t use the drive because there was a ringed plover sitting on eggs on the drive – she hadn’t chosen a good spot to make her nest! All of a sudden the stream had the most wonderful planting -not unusual plants – but put together so beautifully. This is our ranger guide, Elspeth, but I think she is more interested in trying to spot white tailed sea eagles which nest on the island in the background!

The front lawn at House of Gruinard, covered in ox-eye daisies -beautiful!

Super planting in the garden “proper” which slopes up the hillside.

Lovely planting with contrasting foliage.

Our next garden was at Dundonnell House, home of  Lady Rice, former wife of Tim Rice.This is a mosaic which she had made on the terrace, lovely.

We were greeted with this beautiful blue and yellow planting as soon as we stepped into the garden.

View  to the house  through the Japanese garden.The bamboo archway frames the view nicely.

Gorgeous planting with orchids.

The next day we went to see the gardens at Atterdale House near the Kyle of Lochalsh, the first part of the garden that you see is a streamside beautifully planted with more gorgeous primulas and other bog plants.

The garden is also home to various super sculptures like this fantastic cheetah,

and this wild boar,

and on the terrace they have this huge sundial.

The view over the house and beyond is breathtaking from the upper walk near the woods.

How about this for a view while we stopped for lunch before returning to Aigas. A Hen Harrier passed over while we were having lunch – fantastic!

Next day we were taken round the Aigas garden by the owner, Lady Lucy Lister-Kaye. The gardens have been her own personal project for the last 20 yrs – she is also a cordon-bleu cook – no wonder our meals are so good.As if that was not enough Lady Lucy is the organiser for the whole of N.Scotland and the Islands for the National Garden Scheme!

Found a few meconopsis at the back.

And this gorgeous primula but no-one knew what its name is, such a lovely colour.Any ideas anyone?

In the afternoon we went to Abriachan nursery and garden at the side of Loch Ness -no we didn’t see the monster, that particular bit of wildlife was not showing itself !! Elspeth was very taken with this orchid.

More meconopsis – this one is Slieve Donnard and yes, I bought one in the nursery, more to propogate in the future!!

Our last garden was Coiltie garden which is high above the village of Drumnadrochit.

From the Coiltie garden you can see this waterfall. Apparantly Charles Kingsley, who wrote the book ” The Water Babies” used to stay in the house next door and he used to climb & sit beside the waterfall which was his inspiration for the book.

Our last day, looking for more wild flowers. Just further on from here, which was our lunch stop, in Easter Ross, we had a super view of Ospreys on their nest with 2 chicks, much better views than at Loch Garten on our way up.

We found a few rare wild flowers but also heard crossbills calling, we tried but couldn’t see them.

Stopped at an inlet to the bay and found this baby common seal just below the jetty we were on, Mum nowhere to be seen, so hope they eventually got back together.

Masses of Orchids on the sand dunes, fantastic sight.

At Aigas in the baronial hall for our last dinner together.There were just 5 of us on our garden and wildflower course, which was nice, the other 14 were on the wildlife course. I think we saw almost as much wildlife as they did, so we had the best of both worlds.

Now on our way back home and the last garden we stopped at was Cluny House Gardens near Aberfeldy where the first thing we spotted were 2 red squirrels. The garden had these lovely white meconopsis in amongst the blue.

And yet more lovely primulas.

We stayed overnight at a super B&B near Carlisle and this was the view from our breakfast table over the large pond complete with mallard and moorhens.

After this we headed on south staying with friends on the way and eventually returned home for a good rest!!!

We saw nearly as much wildlife as we did a couple of years ago when we went on their special wildlife holiday. Having sorted through all my photos, I think I will have to split them into 2 posts – one about the journey up there from the south coast of England,which took us 4 days because we were stopping all the time and the other about our time in Scotland. I will warn you though, there will be lots of Meconopsis and Primulas, and you know how I love Meconopsis!! Also  included will be sculptures and wildlife that we saw as we were travelling up through the country.

You may remember me saying in my post about opening for the N.G.S. that we can all get inspiration from garden visiting and I have come back with my head bursting with lots of ideas of how to improve the garden here.

Our first stop was at Stone Cottage Garden and nursery near Kidderminster.

The garden was very pretty, I have seen photos of it many times in various magazines , but it seemed a lot smaller in real life. It has an excellent nursery, yes I did succumb to temptation and bought 2 plants, so even while I was away I was having to water a movable garden!

Our next stop was at The Old Rectory, Sudborough, which was a beautiful, romantic, dreamy garden. This was open for the N.G.S. and was extremely neat and tidy.

There were masses of roses, paeonies, campanulas and foxgloves, it was delightful.

A very quick stop to photograph a wonderful field of poppies, what an amazing sight, not often seen these days.

Our next stop was at Barnsdale, the garden of the late Geoff Hamilton, who used to be the presenter of the TV programme, Gardeners World. It looked tired and even a bit unloved in places even though there were plenty of people working in the garden.

However there were flashes of brilliance here and there and it was very interesting seeing all the garden areas that were made during the programme.

Onwards northwards, our next destination was the stream planting at the R.H.S. garden at Harlow Carr, I have wanted to see this planting for a long time and was not disappointed.

The candelabra primulas were magnificent in lots of beautiful shades, must sow lots of seeds in my own garden to try and create the same effect in my boggy area.

The R.H.S. are running a trial of Meconopsis at Harlow Carr to see which are the best varieties to grow in the English weather. We just caught the end of the flowering period so not many flowers left for me to photograph!

The Alpine House was looking very colourful with all the plants in flower, everywhere was so neat and tidy and the plants looked really healthy.

Our next stop was at Kilburn, to go to the workshops of “Mouseman Thompson” so called because he carved a little mouse on everything he made as his trademark. Robert Thompson was born in 1876, he taught himself carpentry and carving and by 1919 was starting to make beautiful furniture, His grandsons are carrying on the tradition.

We were able to watch the young men working and able to see the furniture being made.Was hoping to buy a small piece, but the prices were way beyond me, will just have to carve my own!!

If you climb up through the garden behind the shop you have a good view of the white horse that has been carved into the hillside. This well known landmark was cut out of the turf in 1857 and is unusual in the north of England, all the other white horses are in the south.

Couldn’t come to the north east without seeing the Angel of the North, a famous sculpture by Antony Gormley which is seen by 90,000 people every day as they zoom up the A1. It took 7 months to make in 1998 and is 65tf tall with a wingspan of 175ft, it is an amazing structure and I am so glad I have had the chance to see it so close .

When it was first erected it stood on a grassy hillock for all to see when driving past. The area has been landscaped with trees and now as you approach it, the poor angel is just about peeping over the trees which have grown so much. Will the trees be thinned and reduced or is someone trying to hide the sculpture so that you have to leave the busy road to come and see it properly, seems a shame to hide it.

Alnwick Gardens was our next stop, we had visited it years ago when it was very new and we were looking forward to seeing how it had grown over the years. To start with we had a very grumpy young lady selling us our tickets, not a good start!

The hedges round the giant cascade had grown a lot and looked a lot better and there were other water features which were new, which was good.

I think the best thing about the walled garden at the top was this new dove cote with its beautiful inhabitants. This is a very expensive garden to visit, £9 for us oldies and £11 for the rest of you, so I’m sorry to say that this is probably the last time we will come. Bought a lovely paeony in their plant centre, fantastic perfume, the car smelled beautiful the whole time!

The whole of the next day was spent visiting the Farne Islands, off the Northumbrian coast.

I have always wanted to see puffins and I was not disappointed, there were hundreds of them, if not thousands, on the first island we visited.

Also , sharing the island with them, were hundreds of shags,  most of  their chicks had hatched and they were as big as their parents, but very fluffy.

We had our packed lunch here and then it was back to the boat and over to another island to see the terns.

As well as the terns, there were hundreds of kittiwakes

and razorbills nesting on the cliffs.

And yet more puffins!

The Arctic terns were nesting right by the path that we had to walk on and we were attacked repeatedly by them pecking our heads as we walked by

Couldn’t get over how tiny the Arctic terns feet were.

This one has a sand eel in its beak, a juicy meal for someone. This island is only open to visitors for one and a half hrs so the birds are not disturbed too much, it was such an experience, so glad we went, although the boat trip back was very choppy !

The next day we were in Scotland, at last !! We stopped at a super garden in Pitlochry, by the theatre, The Explorers Garden.A lot of the plant hunters that brought all the wonderful plants back that we have in our gardens, came from Scotland. The garden was laid out in continents with each explorer named who had brought back the plants that were growing in each section.

Of course, when we got to the Himalayan section, there were the most gorgeous Meconopsis that I had been hoping to see. Scottish gardens are about a month behind the south of England because they are so much further north.

There were so many different varieties of Meconopsis, they were all so beautiful.

Lots of different Primulas,

Some such a stunning colour,

This one, alpicola alba, looked so beautiful, I had to buy it on my way out, super perfume too!

Lots of Marsh Orchids, another one to put on my list of plants to buy. This was a really super garden, and so interesting reading the history of the planthunters.

Onwards once more and a quick stop at the Osprey Centre at Loch Garten where I spotted this woodcarving. We were able to see the Ospreys on their nest, with young, through the telescope and also with the video link, little did we realise that we would get much better views later when we were out looking at wild flowers.

Not much further on and we reached our destination, Aigas Field Centre. We were shown to our log cabin and later, down at the house, we were given a very welcome cup of tea and cake. Aigas is famous for its cooking as well as its wildlife, we were certainly looking forward to the next 7 days !!

I came face to face with them again 2 yrs later at Les Jardins de Metis, on the south side of the St. Lawrence River while on holiday in Canada and became even more determined to grow them if I possibly could. I bought a packet of seed of Meconopsis betonicifolia from the Metis garden and that was the start for me – I was hooked !

I then bought 1 plant of  Meconopsis “Lingholm” which was bred in the UK, saved the seed and grew them on. All the photos in this post are of ” Lingholm” grown from my seed.

2 yrs ago I bought 1 plant of Meconopsis  grandis from Dalemain House in the Lake District, UK and am still waiting for this plant to flower, there is a bud coming. Last year it formed 3 small plants around the parent plant, maybe it increases this way and not by seed, I will have to wait and see.

All the information that I have read recommends storing any seed in the fridge until you are ready to sow them, this certainly seems to work for me.

I sowed my seeds in January and then left them outside to get frosted and buried under the snow, then brought them into the greenhouse in February for them to germinate, which they did in about 3 weeks.

I have just pricked out 168 seedlings into plug trays from last years seeds and these will need potting on again before planting out in the autumn.

Is it a plant, is it an animal, it is so hairy you can stroke it !

A few days later you can see that it is definitely a plant – one of my M.”Lingholm” has a bud nestling among the hairy leaves.

Almost time, won’t be long now before the wonderful display starts.

Here in the south of England the weather is usually too warm to be able to grow meconopsis easily. They originate in the Himalayas and are happy in the Arctic circle, north Canada, Scotland and the Lake District of the UK.

All mine are planted in semi shade or full shade, to try to keep them as cool as possible and I have to make sure that they never dry out over the summer. They must have an acid soil with lots of compost and leaf mould added along with a dash of fertiliser.

Meconopsis are such beautiful, amazingly fantastic plants. The colour is the most delicious shade of turquoise blue which I don’t think is found in any other plant, the camera doesn’t lie, they really are this colour !!

It is one of those plants that once seen, you just “have to have it” and it is no good just having one, you have to have hundreds, hence the seed sowing ! One day ,maybe, I will have drifts of meconopsis, my own blue heaven !

The rest of the garden is looking good ready for our open weekend in 2 weeks time — rhododendrons and azaleas are looking fantastic at the moment. Will they still be out or will they be over? The roses are just starting to flower along with all the clematis, they should be looking wonderful in 2 weeks time. Iris, peony and poppies are just starting and the bog garden and ditch are looking very lush with all their contrasting foliage and pretty with all the candelabra primulas. Hostas are looking very good and getting bigger and bigger each year – some are really huge now and seem to be able to withstand attacks from slugs & snails now that they are older plants.

We actually took Sunday afternoon off – a rest from all the weeding. We spent a lovely afternoon looking at other peoples gardens in Talaton, a pretty village just a few miles from here. Lovely plants to look at and buy, we came home with our batteries recharged and full of enthusiasm for our own plot. The best time is wandering around the garden at 5.30am with a mug of tea and my tame robin for company, it is a magical time – everything is so fresh, flowers are looking beautiful with the rising sun shining through them – it makes all the hard work worth while.