The Courts

I have been negligent in my posting these past few days, but I have been trying to pack everything in. The last work week at Hidcote was fun with varied tasks and the weather was absolutely perfect, one warm sunny day after another. Saturday I headed south to visit The Courts Garden (thank you Gordon!) and Barnsley House and I absolutely loved both gardens, but especially The Courts. I think I will continue posting for a week or more about Hidcote- there is just too much to still share.

Above: The Courts House and Garden

Dynamic topiary yews- I LOVE the shape and movement of these trees.

Kitchen Garden

These irregular box shrubs were playful and irregular, and they felt very three dimensional. You really got a sense of depth and space with the various heights and layered planting.

Akebia vine in flower! I remember these from Washington State and I always thought they looked like little glass beads strung up.

I liked this combination of plants, with the strong yellow Euphorbia, the blue Brunnera, and the pale yellow Epimedium.

Another great combination where the yellow Epimedium flower pokes up through the silvery oriental poppy leaves.

This picture does not do this view justice, but on the other side of the lawn, straight through the center, there is a soft yellow green Phlomis planted on top of the wall. My eye was so drawn to the glow of that soft silvery foliage.

An amazing iris (it reminded me of the soft ears of my cat Patrick.)
It is Hermodactylus tuberosus.

There were all these under plantings of Fritillaria melagris in numerous places and they were blooming! A garden after my own heart.

The red twig dogwood was a nice contrast to all the green.

Another thing that I loved about this garden is that the gardeners deliberately left up old seed heads and plant stalks (such as the above Perovskia stems). It takes a very restrained gardener to not cut down the seed heads because this time of year it is all about being tidy and new. The winter interest has carried on into the spring and I thought that was incredibly exciting to see.

I was very drawn to the old seed pods left up in the garden.

An obscenely large flower of the Fritillaria imperialis.

The function of the gate has been given over to the tangle of the clematis!

Pulsatilla vulgaris (Pasque flower)

Lovely water features throughout the garden.

There were a pair of ducks floating up and down the little channel.

A nice view of one of the borders. In front is a yellow Physocarpus planted in front of the deep burgundy Berberis. The deep yellow gold and burgundy red was an electric combination.