We gave ourselves a well earned break from weeding this last weekend and paid a visit to Knightshayes Court in Devon, one of our stately homes run by the National Trust, and famed for its woodland garden.
To get to the woodland garden, you have to pass the pool garden, to one side. What a wonderful example of restrained chic, so elegant, so uncluttered and with such precision cutting for the yew hedges. I wish my hedges had such sharp corners !
Everywhere we looked, no matter which path we took, we found blossom and bulbs to delight the eye.
Tucked under a tree were these Cyclamen repandum.
Next we spotted Trillium grandiflorum spreading happily in the leaf mould, or is it Trillium ovatum ? I do wish there were labels, then we would know what we were looking at.
Most of the Magnolias were over but we found this one flowering in quite a shady spot.
Not just blossom for us to enjoy but also the new foliage, mostly from acers.
Bluebells were everywhere, English variety of course !
It looks as though we were here by ourselves but there were plenty of others enjoying the fantastic scenery and lots of children enjoying the Easter Egg treasure hunt !!
This Azalea makes a statement all by itself – what a beautiful colour.
Yet more bulbs and blossom, the little white plant on the left is a double wood anemone, absolutely gorgeous, hope my little ones spread like that in my woodland.
Lots more Cyclamen repandum, oh, for a drift like that !
Nearly at the end of our tour round the woodland now, it will be such a shame to leave it.
Found another lovely magnolia with huge flowers,
and another which was more of a bush.
A last look at the woodland before coming back to the formal garden.
This shows part of the house and the terrace , which runs in front of the pond garden.
If you look closely, you will see that the yew hedge has been clipped to represent the hunt chasing a fox. You can’t help but admire the hard work involved in keeping a hedge clipped like this.
Next to the house is this Mediterranean style garden planted in very free draining soil. The 2 trees at the back are Wisteria trained as standards, they will look fantastic in a few weeks time when in flower.
I hope you will agree that the garden at Knightshayes is a very special place. It is one of our favourite places to go when we have visitors – really special no matter what time of year it is and such an inspiration.