London Calling. (London gardens , that is.)

We're heading for Jolly Old England next week to attend Chris' Naval Academy reunion, visit friends and family, and meet up (hopefully) with some Facebook and blogging buddies.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper holiday without squeezing as many gardens as possible into the itinerary. Since we’ll mainly be in the London area, we’ll be spoiled for choice with dozens of historic houses and gardens nearby. Here are a few places we hope to visit. Photos to follow!

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Photo courtesy Kew Gardens

Arguably the world’s most famous garden, Kew allows visitors to explore 300 acres of gardens and botanical glasshouses, including the breathtaking Palm House. Its collection includes over 30,000 different kinds of plants. The rose garden was totally redesigned in 2008 and now is home to over 100 varieties of the Queen of Flowers. 

 

Chiswick House Gardens

According to the English Heritage website, Chiswick House is a glorious example of 18th-century British architecture. The third Earl of Burlington, who designed this elegant Classical villa, drew inspiration from his "grand tours" of Italy.

The gardens, beloved for centuries, were the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement and have inspired countless gardens including New York's Central Park. A major project to restore and revive the gardens was completed in 2010.  

Chelsea Physic Garden

London's oldest botanic garden, Chelsea was founded in 1673 by the Worshipful  Society of Apothecaries for its apprentices to study the medicinal qualities of plants. The four acre green oasis has one of the oldest rock gardens in Europe, a Victorian Cool Fernery, beds of medicinal plants, botanical order beds, glasshouses, rare plants and tender species, plus the largest olive tree outdoors in Britain. At one time it was one of the most important centers of botany and plant exchange in the world.
 

Savill Garden

One of England’s finest ornamental gardens featuring 35 acres of interconnecting gardens and woodlands.  A few of the themed areas include The Spring Wood, The Summer Wood, The Hidden Gardens, The Summer Gardens, The Glades, Autumn Wood, The Azalea Walks and The New Zealand Garden.

We were last there in 2007 and since then, a rose garden has been added. Can’t wait to see how many of the 2500 bushes are in bloom.

Fenton House

A London gem, Fenton is a 17^th century merchant’s house set in beautiful walled gardens which combine formal borders and a sunken rose garden. There is also a working kitchen garden and a 300-year-old apple orchard. The bee colony housed in the orchard produces honey that is available to buy.

 

The Garden Museum

After reading this description, I can’t wait to visit this place. In fact, it is close to the top of my list.

“The Garden Museum's permanent display includes a collection of antique tools exploring garden history. Temporary exhibitions and events also take place throughout the year. Outside, in the recreation of a seventeenth-century knot garden planted in honour of John Tradescant, intrepid plant hunter and gardener to Charles I, are the tombs of the Tradescants and Admiral Bligh of the Bounty. Topiaries, old roses, herbaceous perennials and bulbs give year-round interest, and most plants are labelled with their country of origin and year of introduction to the UK.  “

Buckingham Palace

Last winter, after an episode of Downton Abbey, we watched a wonderful documentary on PBS about The Queen’s Garden at Buckingham Palace. The program followed the garden over a year’s time, exploring the history and the natural history of this royal treasure in the center of London.

It was a fascinating look at a garden most of us will never get to see in person. Except, I am thrilled to announce I will be included in a private Press Tour of the Gardens and the State Rooms later this month.

Photo courtesy Tourist Information UK.

I can’t wait to see the royal bees, the Queen’s favorite roses, rare flowers bred exclusively for Her Majesty and all the other amazing sights there.

So watch this space for all the dirt on the Queen’s spectacular horticultural digs.

Until then, cheerio!

The knot garden at Great Fosters Hotel. We stayed there last trip.

Where the wild things are

We think a fox family lives near the trail

The "critter cam" Santa brought me for Christmas is the gift that keeps on giving.

Dad loved the mountains and wildlife

As many of you Dirt Diaries readers recall, we built a small nature path  in memory of my Dad back in 2012. 

We've always wondered what cool things were happening on "Curly's Trail" at night or when we weren't looking. (Was there a Sasquatch or zombie on the loose?)

So I set up the camera (a Browning sub micro) on the last post you can see in the accompanying photo.

That stairway is about 30 yards from our deck and leads down to the stream and a little waterfall. 

The camera takes a photo of anything that moves within 100 feet of its view, night or day. 



 The resulting picture includes an information bar that displays the time, date, moon phase and temperature.

A raccoon heads towards the stream

 That’s great unless you forget to turn the camera off when someone is working in the area. We had 150 pictures of Alfredo’s legs when he was sprucing up the trail and patio by the stream.

Caught the head of a pileated woodpecker

 Some of the critter pictures have been surprising. We didn’t realize there were so many deer around. (As long as they stay away from my roses, that’s okay.)

The deer love my hostas and wildflowers.

We thought we might catch a glimpse of a bear since they’ve visited our deck several times. None yet. We’ve seen owls around, but thus far they haven’t shown up to have their portraits made.

The discovery that a bobcat had been sauntering around the trail was a true shock. I often work down there in the new rose bed Alfredo built for me last spring.
 

Yikes! Mr. Bobcat strolls along the trail at lunchtime

We’d heard they do live in Western North Carolina, but no one in our community has ever seen one. Until they take a peek at the photo on my iPhone.

From now on, I’ll be looking over my shoulder when I’m down by the trail tending to my beauties.

Because we no longer have to wonder where the wild things are.

They’re right here in our very own garden.

July is dressed up and playing her tune

Love these delicate, canary yellow daylilies

July got off to an unhappy start with Chris back in the hospital for emergency surgery. The work that was done last September went bad, so he had an unplanned six-day staycation at Mission in Asheville.

Thankfully all is going well and he is now home trying to do too much out in the garden.

I can’t blame him because July is when everything is happening from the veggie patch to the roadside to the rose garden. Tomatoes are ripening, wild rhododendrons are showing off, and the roses are just getting their second wind.

It’s a great month to enjoy all the blooms around us, and appreciate how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

Even when there is the occasional health hiccup.

Skylark with more blooms and buds than ever

Thomas Edison

Volunteer Balloon Flowers. No clue where they came from.

I'm becoming a phlox phanatic. This was from a "free to good home" bin

The wild rhodies are near their peak. The mountain laurel was the prettiest we've seen in years

Genevieve and visitor

Our Nikkos got nipped again but the Annabelles are gorgeous at High Hampton

The Lark Ascending and visitor

Sir John Betjeman

The Indian Pipes are in bloom

My black and blue salvia has come back for a second year

Welcome to our mountain world, where things are always looking up

Return to Rose Paradise

 In 2012, I wrote about my first visit to Doug and Shari's majestic mountaintop rose garden. If you missed "What you didn't see in Southern Living", you can read the article here.

Since then, I've hung around photographing the garden so often, we've all become friends. I ran into Doug at a local garden center (where else?) in late May and he urged me to stop by soon because everything was blooming at the same time and the roses were in top form. Of course, I made a beeline over there and the garden looked more spectacular than ever. 

Words still cannot describe the beauty. 

Words truly are not necessary. 

Enjoy.

 

 

Last night we were honored to be on the guest list for the celebration of Doug and Shari's 45th wedding anniversary. It was the first time I had seen the garden at sunset. 

I can't wait for more magnificent photo ops in years to come.

    

One of the oldest names in rosedom wins the 2015 Biltmore International Trials

The fabulous Biltmore Rose Garden hosts the International Trials

'Athyfalaa'

A part-time hybridizer made history in 2013 when one of his creations won the George and Edith Vanderbilt Award for Most Outstanding Rose at the first Biltmore International Rose Trials competition held in Asheville, North Carolina.

Mike Athy of Gisborne, New Zealand entered his climbing/groundcover rose (temporarily known as 'Athyfalaa') in 2011 and after eight rounds of judging over two years it was declared the winner in five of eleven categories. Another of his roses was the second highest scorer in the trial.

'Miracle on the Hudson'

In 2014, another amateur, Robert Neal Rippetoe, took top honors with 'Miracle on the Hudson', a vibrant shrub named to salute the Captain, crew and passengers of US Airways Flight 1549. Rippetoe’s rose also won for Best Shrub Rose, Best Growth Habit and Most Disease Resistant.

This year, one of the most honored names in rosedom took home top honors. This year Best in Show went to the hybrid tea ‘Savannah’, bred by Kordes Rosen of Germany. The rose also won Best Hybrid Tea and Most Fragrant.

'Savannah', Courtesy Kordes Roses

This is the third year Biltmore’s Rose Garden has been home to the trials where dozens of varieties from growers and breeders worldwide have been planted and cared for by the team of rosarians and horticulturists there.

No fungicides or insecticides are used on these roses and any entry that displays disease over 25% of the bush is removed from the competition.

Each trial lasts two years and a permanent jury judges the roses four times annually. I am fortunate to be on that permanent panel (despite the fact it can be mighty cold out in the gardens in mid-January.) 

The difficult path to disease resistant roses

I love Kordes roses and especially admire the fact they stopped spraying their bushes in the early 90s. They were way ahead of the curve when it came to breeding more disease resistant varieties. It almost cost them their business as you can read in my 2009 article in The Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Gardening/2009/0326/a-fairy-tale-ending-for-gardeners

'Bajazzo' (right) from  Kordes won Best Climber in 2014

Their determination to create a line of plants that could stay healthy throughout the growing season without the aid of chemical sprays has paid off handsomely. The Fairy Tale, Parfuma and Vigorosa Collections are hugely popular, and for good reason.

I loved the fairy tale endings where the amateur hybridizer bests the big names in the business.

This year, it is nice to see folks who started producing roses in 1887 step into the Biltmore spotlight.

Here is a complete listing of the winners:

·        The George & Edith Vanderbilt Award for Most Outstanding Rose of the Trials (Best in Show): 'Savannah,' bred by Kordes Rosen in Germany

·        The Pauline Merrell Award for Best Hybrid Tea: 'Savannah,' bred by Kordes Rosen in Germany  

·        The Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil Award for Most Fragrant Rose: 'Savannah,' bred by Kordes Rosen in Germany

·        The Award of Excellence for Best Established Rose: 'Queen Elizabeth,' a Grandiflora rose.

·        The Edith Wharton Award for Best Floribunda: 'Tequila Gold,' bred by Meilland in France.

·        The Honorable John Cecil for Open Group: 'Popcorn Drift,' bred by Nova Flora, a breeder in West Grove, Pa.

·        The Gilded Age Award for Best Climber: 'FlyingKiss,' bred by Ping Lim, based in Portland, Oregon.

·        The Chauncey Beadle Award for Best Shrub Rose: 'Peachy Keen,' bred by Bill Radler, of Milwaukee, Wisc.

·        The William Cecil Award for Best Growth Habit: 'Phloxy Baby,' bred by Bill Radler, of Milwaukee, Wisc.

·        The Lord Burleigh Award for Most Disease Resistant: 'Peachy Keen,' bred by Bill Radler, of Milwaukee, Wisc.