Hidcote Gardens

It's not hard after being here any time at all to make some observations about the English. One of the first and most obvious to me is how they love their tea. I've already mentioned here how much the English love their dogs, as evidenced by the fact that almost everyone has at least one on the end of a leash and they take (and allow) them almost everywhere!

In addition to loving their tea and their dogs, they also love their gardens. Almost every cottage has colorful plants blooming, either climbing or overflowing pots and walls. They love their flowers and apparently their flowers love the growing conditions here.

Yesterday we decided to visit Hidcote Gardens near Chipping Campden. It is one of Britain's National Trusts and a very popular tourist attraction. It is an Arts and Crafts Garden designed by an American, Major Lawrence Johnston in 1907. You can read more about Hidcote Gardens by clicking here if interested and even take a virtual tour of the garden.

Although the grounds are quite large I mostly spent my time photographing the dahlias. The only other place I've been able to photograph them was in Butchart Gardens. I'm not sure exactly what conditions they need but I don't believe I've ever seen them in Texas. I'm sure someone who knows more about flowers could tell me.

Needless to say, I can go crazy in a place like this. It's fun to see flowers that don't grow where we live and it's even more fun when I'm armed with camera and extra memory cards and batteries (just in case)! My very favorite flower to photograph are dahlias (the English say day-lias). They are just so absolutely perfect and there are so many varieties of them!

None of the flowers are identified in the garden, as Major Johnston wanted it to have the feel of a private garden. If you don't know the name of a plant, you can ask one of the 100 volunteers or email a photo of it to the garden to find out.

I think we must have come at the perfect time of the year - the end of Summer when flowers are still blooming, but at the same time seeing indications that Fall color is 2 or 3 weeks away. I love the vine covered cottages (Virginia Creeper) that covers houses and walls. It was solid green a month ago but is now a nice mix of green, pomegranate and fiery red.

Some areas of the garden were roped off which prevented me from getting close enough to shoot macros. Other limitations included sharing the garden with busloads of visitors, the sun going in and out and a slight breeze. All in all, I was very happy to have come away with a few that I really like.

In addition to flowers, sculptures made of stone and metal were displayed throughout the garden so while I was photographing, Ronnie practiced his sketching.

I am totally not above stopping and taking photos of flowers in people's yards and have done that on several occasions. The three below are dahlias from private gardens.