We have visited two gardens during the last two weeks. Our first visit was to Pashley Manor Gardens. Our visit was just before the start of the annual  Tulip Festival.  Due to the long winter the tulips are late this year and will probably be their best in early May and Pashley are extending the festival due to the late flowering. This year they have planted more than 22000 tulips.

The gardens are immaculate as always and have many new Statues and sculptures for sale.

This is a view of the house from the far side of the lake with one of the black swans have a good look at us.

 

 

 

We then visited Sissinghurst Castle Gardens today (29 April) and were pleased with the timing of our visit as the late spring has had the effect of a profusion of spring colour in the lime walk, better than we have ever seen in all the years we have been visiting the garden.

 

 

 

 

And a view from the far end of the Lime Walk:

 

 

We then went through to the white garden and were pleased to see some early flowers in bloom:

 

 

 

Evan the Delos garden has benefited from the weather and is another mass of colour:

 

Leaving the garden one has a fabulous view of the Oast houses:

 

Both Knole and Sissinghust Castle are celebrating the 100 years since the marriage of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West in 1913. A new display is due to open on the 1st May:

 

 

 

 

Monday 15th March

We made our first visit of the year to Sissinghurst .  After the cold winter all the spring bulbs are much later than last year, but we were pleased to  see the abundance of crocus, snowdrops and winter aconite in glorious bloom. It was a lovely day with plenty of sunshine.

We enjoyed seeing the garden in this early stage as we are so used to seeing the huge variety of flowers that we are used to in mid summer. We share below some of the photographs we took today.

The spring garden or the Lime Walk as it is also known.

A close up of  a bee enjoying the early blooms:

A view of the Orchard  where in a few days the daffodils will share this space:  (we will update the picture when they are out in a new posting)

The Sissinghurst farmers market made its first appearance of the year. It will then be on the first Monday of every month. Come and buy some of the wonderful local produce.

We were also pleasantly surprised to see tables and chairs out in the open for us to enjoy lunch  or tea from  the Granary Restaurant, most of the vegetables and salads are grown on site during the summer. This is a recent innovation.

The winter aconite (Eranthis Hyemalis) in bloom: