Wednesday 25 April 2018

Within These Walls

Yesterday I presented you with A Bunch Of Tulips without telling you where I'd been to pick them - metaphorically photographically picked them of course; I'd have found myself in trouble if I'd actually factually picked them. To find so many flowers you have to go somewhere special, somewhere like this....


or like this....


or perhaps even this.....


The irony is that this garden was never meant to be walked around and admired even though thousands of people must do it every year these days. We are at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall, which is just a half-hour-or-so's bicycle ride from my back door, and we're in the walled garden which was originally intended to produce food for the table of the great house and cut-flowers for arrangements to beautify its many rooms.


The walls, which are about twelve feet (3.65 metres) high are to shelter the garden from the cold winds and create a micro-climate that's ideal for gardening. Yesterday, when it was so blustery that I had to fight with the bike's handlebars just to stay on the road, was an ideal day to test its efficacy and I'm pleased to say it passed the test.


Today the garden is kept in shape by a couple of gardeners and a large army of volunteers, their gardening gloves making an unlikely and unintended display in the large glasshouse...


Almost as colourful as the flowers!


The walls of the garden do not only provide protection for the flowers, vegetables, windswept cyclists and volunteer gardeners; they also protect and support the espaliered fruit trees.


Those are cherries growing in the photo above. That may well be a "hot wall", that is a wall with flues within it to carry heat from a furnace to speed the growing and ripening of the fruit.


....and I think these were pears.

What else to show you?


Just outside the walls, but still to some extent sheltered by them, were these tiny miniature tulips growing in amongst the cowslips.

And just in case you think it's all tulips here.....



Take care.



20 comments:

  1. Now that looks a beautiful place to visit

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  2. Does anything warm the heart like a ravishing display of spring flowers.....well, may be a whole woodland full of migratory birds...but that’s another story. Great reporting!

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  3. I had a dear friend who used to live on the Green in Barrington, and we used to visit Wimpole to walk the grounds quite regularly. I don't expect I would recognise it now as so many of the NT properties that I revist after a long period seem to be quite unlike my memories!!!
    What a charming image of the cowslips sitting amongst those miniature tulips.

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  4. I wonder what follows the tulips im such a garden? Will you treat us to that as well?

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  5. The gloves photo is so evocative--in some ways it's my favorite of this series, a testament to the work done by the gardeners.

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  6. How lovely a garden...I wonder if they'll do vegetables as well, or just stay ornamental. Do let us know the progress over the growing season, please.

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    1. They certainly grow veg too. Not sure if I'll get back there this summer but it's always possible.

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  7. A truly beautiful and colorful place to walk. Love this!

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  8. The gardeners and volunteers did a lot of work to get this fabulous result. It is a beautiful looking garden.

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  9. The miniature tulips look like butterflies in among the cowslips. I really like the colour combination of purple, orange and red - lots of energy to it.We only see Amaryllis blooming around Christmas but obviously the timing can be tweaked as some pretty doubles are blooming in the greenhouse.

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  10. Wow, spring has sprung! The tulips are so bright and gaudy compared to the other spring flowers. Those greens are doing well and ready to eat I believe.

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  11. You tulip photos are lovely!

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  12. Wow, stunningly beautiful. All that colour is so nice to see.

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  13. Spring is sprung! Tulips are so rich in colors. You made me want to stroll around the flowers in the walled garden in person. You picked up so many different types of tulip one by one to make such a lovely mosaic in the previous post.

    Yoko

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  14. How wonderful, such cheering colour and beautiful blossom in the walled garden:)

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  15. This is pretty much my idea of the perfect garden John! Lots of work to keep it so nice but what a joy to do it!

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  16. Sorry I’m tardy again, I have caught up with your posts. Your tulips are stunning. I’ve never heard of a hot wall, what a brilliant idea. I love your posts John, they all bring a smile to my face. Your photography is first class, do you ever enter competitions?

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  17. Lovely garden! It's very nicely arranged. And I love the espalier! Also great tulip poster on the previous post. Very creative!

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  18. What a beautiful garden, so colourful with all those flowers. I like the display of gloves too!

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