Autumn Cottage Diarist

Just Another Day in Paradise - Part 2: Mottisfont Abbey

It's *hot* here in the UK - we are in the middle of a (long-awaited) heatwave, and the roses are just loving it. Roses here in Autumn Cottage garden are really flourishing this year - and I've just called in at the garden centre across the road, where there are roses in abundance scenting the air.

But to see the total, overwhelming glory of the rose, the National Collection of old roses at Mottisfont Abbey is unbeatable. It is particularly glorious this year - so much so, that as I walked into the walled garden where it is situated, my eyes welled up with tears at the sheer beauty of the experience.

I'm not going to list all the names of the roses - I just want to talk you on a walk around the garden there with me, to enjoy, as I did, the feeling of being totally swallowed up on a perfumed garland. Enjoy this loveliness - ephemeral but oh, so wonderful - and if you live close, go in person - you won't regret it.

Travelling in style - age is no barrier to a perambulation of the garden

Hands up anyone who has ever longed for a walled garden

A peaceful spot to sit and think

Arch covered with  Rosa 'Adelaide d'Orleans'

The perfect colour combination - roses, foxgloves & campanulas

An enticingly shady spot for a hot afternoon

Important activity by a Very Important Creature on Phlomis russeliana

Sisirhynchiums surrounded by Stachys lanata - great plants for hot gravel beds or dry soil

One of the Lavender Walks - another week or so to full bloom but already looking spectacular

Forty winks in Paradise for two elders - the perfect end to a perfect day...

Just Another Day in Paradise - Part 1: Houghton Lodge

The Old Well, Houghton Lodge

Now nearly a week ago in Paradise - but it is high summer here, the garden calls me away for much attention and only now am I getting to the keyboard to post few words but many pictures of the glorious garden day that we spent last Monday. We managed to squeeze in visits to three gardens that are on our regular 'circuit' but are, at the moment, looking spectacularly beautiful. You can't smell the scents or feel the sun on your back, but I hope you can enjoy the visual feast of these little pools of beauty in North Hampshire in July.

In these pictures, our first stop on the tour - to Houghton Lodge, near Stockbridge. I am sure I have shown you pictures of this place before, but these are a little earlier in the season. I hope you enjoy your walk around with me!

Hydroponically grown petunias

Immense variety in the Orchid House

The camouflaged humidfier

Victorian cloches waiting to be called into action in the autumn, to protect any tender plants

One of the blowsy Paeonies from the Paeony Walk (possibly 'Bowl of Beauty'?)

Rhubarb making a break for it from the top of their forcing pots

Burgeoning, bee-laden catmint (Nepeta) in the gravel garden, looking back to the conservatory

Rosa mundi, a sport of  the Apothecary's rose

Abundance everywhere - the finest sight of high summer - looking down towards the meadows

In beating heat - Small Tortoishell butterflies on Scabious

Huge heads of Allium christophii in the Long Border

A little shepherd boy making a lovely point of focus in a sea of greenery

Houghton Lodge - the fairytale 18th century 'Cottage Orne'

The long view from the house

The Residents