Date/Time
Date(s) - 30/06/2015
All Day
Location
Bristol Botanic Gardens
Categories
Tuesday, 30th June was a day of contrast for 39 members of the Gardening Club. The morning was spent at Bristol University Botanic Garden and involved an educational tour of the four core collections: plants that illustrate evolution (only 500 million years!), plants from the world’s Mediterranean climatic regions, useful plants and rare threatened plants native to the Bristol area and the South West peninsular. Divided into three groups with specialist guides, our first port of call was the glasshouses where we marvelled at the Giant Amazon flat leaved Water Lily, Victoria Amazonia and Victoria cruziana (pictured) with pie-dish like leaves spanning 3ft, capable of holding the weight of a small child, we were told.
Appropriately on a very hot day, our tour ended walking through the “hot” garden. Here Lychnis chalcedonica (Jerusalem cross) was pointed out as the adopted emblem of Bristol. It came into the port as ballast on the ships and naturalised and was used as a dye. Members ate their picnic lunches under the awnings on the West Terrace overlooking a large pool with water lilies, known as Marliac Hybrids. Bred by Monsieur Latour-Marliac in the 19th century, they set a cooling scene similar to Claude Monet’s water lilies at Giverny!
The afternoon’s visit to Lady Farm Gardens at Chelwood, voted one of the UK’s top gardens by the Daily Telegraph, was a wander at will through a garden created over 20 years by Judy Pearce. In the shade of the weeping birch, Judy described how in 1972 she and her husband Malcolm agreed to swap homes with some friends. From their very comfortable modern house, they took on a 150 acre dairy farm when the husbands shook hands on the deal after an evening drinking cider! They ceased milking in 1992, the concrete was broken up, soil imported from one of the fields, grass seed sown and trees were planted around the 12 acre perimeter. The accidental discovery of the source of spring water resulted in the waterfalls and lakes running diagonally through the garden. The resident swans, Sally and Harry, have produced cygnets for 20 years. With dramatic vistas and ‘prairie’ and ‘steppe’ style planting, and various sculptures, some based on Greek mythology and others “The Bear” and “The Gorilla” made from fallen trees, everyone was impressed by Judy’s tapestry of colours and swathes of planting. The wonderful view from the rustic tea house, flanked by a meadow garden of poppies, echium, feverfew and oxeye daisies was a relaxing way to finish the day.
