Tulips at Mottisfont

We stopped off at the National Trust’s Mottisfont on our way back from our short break in the New Forest. Breaking the journey with a stop at a National Trust property is absolutely my best way to break a journey, and while this one took us a little out of our way from a direct route it’d been a good few years since we last visited, so it really was a no-brainer.

I just checked and we previously visited in 2017 on our way back from a family celebration holiday in 2017. Back then I was pleased to discover the Potting Shed, but sadly it was no longer in place. On this visit though the tulips more than made up for that.

So as the tulips die back for another year, here’s a reminder of just how fabulous they are. There were so many different types, and many that I didn’t manage to capture (unbelievably!), and our wander through the walled garden started where I remembered the potting shed to have been with a large terracotta pot of tulips, and rows of raised beds equally full.

It was in these raised beds that these frilly purple tulips were mixed in with the paler pointy pink ones, and a more neutral yellowy-white variety. Though with the fancy ones, the neutral ones barely got a look in though I think they really did help the others shine.

Moving on into the walled garden the borders thronged with tulips, as you’ll see in a moment - but first just some of the glorious tulips that caught my eye. We were lucky with the weather for our visit, and the sun made the tulips shine even more.

You know how much I love a walled garden, and this one’s no different - but there’s something about gates in garden walls isn’t there? Especially closed ones, perhaps it’s the mystery of what’s behind it - and no doubt that is likely not to match my imagination.

We stopped on one of these benches to enjoy the space awhile, and admire the tulips too. On our previous visit the garden was full of roses, and I’m sure they are most likely making their presence felt right now. The climbing rose we have in our garden is doing spectacularly well with more flowers than we can remember for a long time, I’m hoping that many rose gardens are also benefitting from plenty of flowers and gorgeous scent.

There’s more individual flowers to share yet though, and I promise I didn’t stop to snap them all - though it was tempting!

The one above reminds me of rhubarb and custard, can you see that too?

As we wandered through to the end of the garden I caught sight of the armillary sphere and couldn’t resist a picture. I will have seen this previously and I’m sure admired it but wouldn’t have known its name. I do now though thanks to the Seven Sisters series of books by Lucinda Riley! See you never know when what you’ve learnt through reading will come in useful - I’m still several books behind though, and I’m waiting for some more to become available on KindleUnlimited (spoiler: I couldn’t wait for some, and it’s likely I’ll be purchasing the next in the series soon!)

It was great to have a wander around the walled garden, and to catch up with other parts of the property - including a quick tour of the house to see that again, and to answer a question I had from our previous visit. But that’s for another day…

Rhododendrons and rocks at Exbury Gardens

* I was provided a pair of tickets to Exbury Gardens & Steam Railway and therefore are marking posts from my visit as 'Ad’ - as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

We stopped off at Exbury Gardens on our way down to the New Forest, which for us in South London is about a two and a half hour journey, though the traffic app warns it could be anywhere up to four hours. We were lucky and had a really good, and uneventful trip down, which is just what you want really isn’t it?

It was our first time visiting Exbury, and we were keen to get out of the car to stretch our legs and to see for ourselves what was on offer.

Spoiler: I took lots of photos, way too many for a single post and so I’ll split these into more manageable chunks. And yes, I know that’s not much of a spoiler at all is it, it’s mostly the norm!

Exbury Gardens & Steam Railway, to give it its proper name, is as its name suggests in Exbury, Hampshire. It has 200 acres of informal woodlands and was created by Lionel de Rothschild in 1919 and still managed by the family today. It’s famous for its displays of rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias with large collections, which are not only plentiful but also full of colour.

I wasn’t disappointed.

There were pinks of every shade you could imagine - the one above caught my eye as it was so vibrant and solitary, looking almost ‘bird of paradise’ like, but it wasn’t the only one. There’s over 800 types of rhododendron (which comes from the Greek ‘rhodos’ meaning rose and ‘dendron’ meaning tree) which are spread around the globe.

Here at Exbury Lionel de Rothschild relied on nurserymen from around the world to send him interesting plants, one of which went on to become the most famous post-war species and parent or grandparent to a host of compact plants suitable for smaller gardens.

I’m never one to pass on a photo opportunity of some lichen, you know how much I liken the lichen - but this one’s a real beauty!

And just when you think it can’t get any better there’s bushes and bushes of azaleas too which are truly stunning, the colours even more vibrant than those of the camellias and the rhododendrons we’d already seen.

We’d spotted the Rock Garden from our trip on the train - perfectly named the Rhododendron Line - and as all rock gardens should, its entrance was marked with a rock.

Here the planting changed, but we weren’t totally without the rhododendrons. The two acre garden was created in the late 1920s but fell into disrepair as a result of the war becoming overgrown and neglected. It was restored and replanted with dwarf rhododendrons and conifers in the 1970s which reached maturity some thirty years later. As with every garden, there’s always work to be done and this garden is no different and is currently undergoing a programme of rejuvenation.

And with the different planting, as you’d expect the garden had a totally different feel. It was calmer, and more relaxing - though that may also have been down to the speed (or lack of) that we explored the space. There were paths leading up and down and around, which including using the large rocks to navigate through the space - nothing too strenuous, but so, so worth it.

Having explored the rock garden and marvelled at how such spaces are created we left to immerse ourself in the colour elsewhere in the garden. In future posts I’ll share more about our trip on the steam train, the trees throughout the garden and the sundial garden - but in the meantime I’ll leave you with the deepest crimson rhododendron, the most glorious coloured one I think I’ve ever seen, and a wall of azaleas which provides the perfect photo stop.

I’d heard good things about Exbury Gardens before our visit, and as I said at the start of this post, I wasn’t disappointed.

With thanks to Exbury Gardens & Steam Railway who provided a pair of tickets for entry. All views and opinions are very much my own.

White bucks at The White Buck

We’ve had quite a week, and quite honestly, where to start. For the first time in what seems like a long time we had a short break staying in a hotel (rather than self-catering) and one that wasn’t in the Midlands or the north of England. We bucked the trend (sorry!), our own trend that is and headed down to Hampshire with visits to Exbury Gardens and the Gardeners’ World Spring Fair at Beaulieu, and planning to fit in a walk in the New Forest at some point.

There was so much to see, and consequently so many photos to edit before sharing, and then back home a visit to Grand Designs Live over at Excel has just added to it all. So not really knowing where to start, I’m sharing our hotel - The White Buck at Burley - which was just what we needed. It was so nice to get away and have a complete break, and we had a great stay and spotted plenty of bucks in the decor.

But done in a way that wasn’t kitsch. I mean who could resist a stag candlestick?

There were some great furnishings in the bar area too, a good reminder that patterns and plains can give a traditional style a modern twist.

The look and feel continued through to our room too, with the reclaimed wood and neutral palette with pops of colour. Here they came from the bedside tables and the scatter cushions, where the material was also used on the chairs.

The artwork in our room was also stag based, and these two stags looked over us. The brown one (on the left) had a pattern of fir trees on its body, the right (the blue) was just a bit more random, but both worked in the room and actually gave me an idea for a future craft project - another one to add to the list!

I was also taken with the prismatic-type stags head artwork also in our room. So simple, but so effective, understated but impactful.

I’ll share more about our trip, and our visit to Exbury Gardens, the Spring Fair, a brief visit to the National Trust’s Mottisfont and our day at Grand Designs Live and more soon, I just need to get myself a plan as there’s lots to share!