What a difference a day makes, don’t know how long exactly our spell of lovely mild weather will last, but we decided to make the most of it and go garden visiting to admire snowdrops!! We went to East Lambrook Manor in Somerset which has a Grade I listed cottage garden created by Margery Fish between 1938 and 1969. Margery Fish was a celebrated plantswoman in her time and is a well known author of gardening books, some of which I have read over and over again.
Planting trough at the entrance to the garden
Crocus Tommasinianus
This was the beautiful sight which greeted us as we entered the garden, lovely C. tommasinianus, all open wide for any passing bee, due to the lovely sunshine.
Winter aconites amongst C. tommasinianus
Seeding into the grass, in fact seeding everywhere.
I can see that some people wouldn’t like them seeding into their lawns, but here it just looked so magical, I loved it.
East Lambrook Manor house
The 17th Century Manor House was a run down chicken farm when Margery Fish and her husband bought it in 1938. Never having gardened before, she learned very quickly and soon became obsessed with gardening, just like the rest of us!
Galanthus Seagull
The cottage garden that she made soon became famous through the many books that she wrote and articles for magazines.
Bergenias opening in the sunshine in the ditch.
Here we have the start of the ditch in the garden, which I think is the most famous part of the garden. Even though it has so many plants flowering now, Margery Fish planted it up so that it flowered through until autumn.
Snowdrops everywhere.
Snowdrops as far as the eye could see, but in between are plants to flower later, the ditch looks wonderful when all the astilbes are flowering.
More snowdrops.
Looking at the planting makes me think I should make more of the ditch here, but at this point I noticed that the sides are terraced, which would provide nice soil for all the special plants, hmm!
The ditch stretches a long way.
Lovely large clumps of snowdrops everywhere.
Winter aconites and snowdrops .
Two sides of the garden have the boundary marked by a beech hedge and everywhere there were aconites and snowdrops peeping out, reaching for the sun.
A large clump of G. Straffan, wish mine were doing so well!
At the top of the ditch.
Almost at the nursery now.
Before we came, I promised myself that I didn’t need any more snowdrops for the woodland, I kept telling myself that I really didn’t need any more!
Exhibition bed of snowdrops.
At the entrance to the sales area is a raised bed containing one each of all the varieties that they have in the garden.
G. Grumpy.
What lovely markings on Grumpy.
G.Sibbertoft Manor.
Now if these two were in the sales area, I might be tempted, but no such luck, they weren’t there unfortunately.
Chaenomeles
Did I buy anything, you will have to wait and see! On the way back to the car we noticed that lots of other flowers had opened, here was a lovely white Chaenomeles looking really beautiful on a north facing wall.
Iris unguicularis.
At the base of the old Malt House wall were lots of clumps of Iris unguicularis sporting loads of flowers, enjoying the sunshine.
Tulips.
White C. tommasinianus?
Hellebores.
There were lots and lots of hellebores, white, yellow, pink, plum, almost black, singles and doubles, they all looked beautiful in between the snowdrops.
Time now to go to the pub next door where we had a super lunch before making our way home. Did I buy any snowdrops, what do you think!?
G. Gloria.
Meet Galanthus Gloria, they might not have had Sibbertoft Manor for me to buy, but Gloria is almost the same. Pure white, with the inner petals nearly as long as the outer petals and quite tall. I discovered on the way home, with it sitting on my knee, that it has a lovely perfume too.
G. Gloria.
Not a good photo, sorry, but look at the side of Gloria, she has a baby! Hopefully next year we will have 2 flowers! Looking Gloria up in the small book “Snowdrops” by Gunter Waldorf, he describes it as ” a poculiform snowdrop from the same French origin as Angelique.” I think poculiform means that the inner and outer petals are all the same length, and I have a nice clump of Angelique which has increased quickly, I hope this one does the same!
G. Gloria planted.
G. Gloria was taken into the woodland as soon as we got home and now lives just behind Wendy’s Gold. They are on a slope at the end of the woodland and would you believe, the soil was fairly dry, even after all our rain, so she had a good watering in.
We had a lovely day out, making the most of the first warm, sunny day this year, so warm, the jacket came off!! If anyone would like to find out more about East Lambrook Manor, please click here. If the lovely weather continues, it will be out into the garden tomorrow to try and catch up with all the jobs that need doing.
What a lovely day out, Pauline – was it as pleasantly mild as it has been here? Those crocus were beautiful – like purple snowflakes. And the ‘Ditch’! It needs inverted commas AND a capital letter, as it is nothing like what most of us would think of as a ditch, and certainly very lovely. Some very lovely snowdrops too – and brave of you to go somewhere you knew you would be tempted to purchase more! Your ‘Wendy’s Gold’ is looking very lovely too, by the way – I nearly lost mine but it seems to be pulling through although it won’t flower this year.
It was so warm Cathy, the fleece had to be removed, the sun had so much heat in it, it was wonderful! I though the crocus under the trees looked so pretty, such a lovely effect, showing the benefit of drifts of just one plant. I have always loved the planting in the ditch, no matter what time of year we visit, it is so inspiring. So glad you still have Wendy’s Gold, it is such a lovely one.
I am so incredibly jealous that you have places like this to visit and admire and buy! snowdrops. I have wanted Gloria or one like he for a while but not available in the US. Could you take us to a few more snowdrop gardens before the season is over….please!!!
I know Carolyn, that we are so lucky to have lots of snowdrop gardens to visit, most of whom have snowdrops to sell, you will have to come over one February for a visit!!
In case I don’t have time for another visit this month, can I refer you to a post I wrote in February 2011, before we were in touch with each other, Snowdrop pilgrimage, when we visited Colesbourne Park in Gloucestershire, a super garden with thousands of snowdrops as far as the eye can see.
http://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/uncategorized/snowdrop-pilgrimage/ This is the garden where the Elwes family still live, of snowdrop fame, you would love it!
Sounds like a fantastic day out, it must be wonderful having such warm weather. G seagull would be the one for me, I love seagulls.
Hi Helen, yes it really was a wonderful day with having such super weather for a change. Today has started very foggy, but the sun is starting to break through, so we hope for a repeat of lovely sunshine. Seagull is beautiful, but unfortunately there were none for sale, otherwise it would have come home with me!
What a lovely garden to visit, very skilled use of the ditch area, which could easily have become one of those unfortunate overlooked and under used places. I am hoping to plant out my white chaenomeles this weekend, it was nice to see one in flower – mine only just has buds appearing.
It is a lovely garden Janet, she has made her ditch the high spot of the garden all year round. I have been out looking at my ditch this morning and have decided that it needs improving. Our ditch is between the back garden and the woodland and I have already planted plenty of snowdrops and hellebores with lots of astilbes for later, which were planted to mark our Ruby Wedding a few years ago, but there is still room for improvement!
We have a salmon coloured chaenomeles which has flowered on and off all winter and looks lovely at the moment, covered in flowers, but my Apple Blossom up at the top of the garden is still in tight bud, maybe this warmer spell will encourage it to open up.
Thanks for sharing your visit to this wonderful garden. The C. tommasinianus are so cheerful.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit Susie, made even better by the perfect weather! I too really liked the crocus growing under the tree, must plant more here and maybe even in the lawn!
Your post has brought back some very happy memories of visiting East Lambrook Manor many years ago, once when I was studying garden design and a couple of times in summer with a friend. Thank you. Christina
So glad Christina that it brought back happy memories, its a joy to visit at any time of year. The garden isn’t too far from where we live so is one of the places we quite often take visitors!
What a glorious day! The vision of snowdrops and other bulbs stretching as far as the eye could see, and tiny crocuses spreading exuberantly into the lawn, framing a charming old manor house – Margaret Fish truly created a masterpiece. Now I wish I had a ditch!
Deb, when I first saw Margery Fish’s garden, many years ago, I knew I had to do something about our ditch! It has improved a lot since then, but seeing the garden yesterday, I decided that there was still room for a lot of improvement!! As the ditch cuts across the garden, right down the middle. she must have felt that she had to improve it and she certainly succeeded. A good example of how to turn an eyesore into the main attraction!
Oh what a perfect day out Pauline. Margery Fish’s books were amongst the first gardening books that I read – her enthusiasm and love of plants shines through them.
I would love to visit East Lambrook Manor. So it’s not just me then who gets to the sales area to find that the plant that I had ear-marked for purchase is not available 🙂 Still Gloria looks quite delightful and will keep ‘Wendy’s Gold’ good company. The scent of snowdrops should be bottled and sold.
Her books Anna, were some of the first that I bought, especially the one about plants that like the shade, we have plenty of that and I found it such a help.
East Lambrook Manor is a lovely garden at any time of year, after Margery Fish died, her nephew inherited it, but it has since been bought and sold about 3 times I think. It is still gardened following her principles and is thought to be the best example of an English cottage garden in the country.
I don’t think we realise how much perfume one snowdrop has, it’s only when we come into close contact with them that we realise just how strong it is, really delightful.
Thanks for sharing your visit. I’ve just got hold of one of Margery Fish’s books and East Lambrook is somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for a while now. What perfect weather for a visit. It’s been such a lovely treat seeing so much sunshine over the last couple of days. Will try to get to East Lambrook this year.
Today, WW, I have started reading her book about planting in the shade, I bought a few of her books that were being reprinted and have found them to be very useful. East Lambrook is a lovely garden to visit throughout the year, not just at snowdrop time, hope you make it and that you enjoy your visit!
Hello Pauline, I’ve never managed to become a fan of snowdrops – largely because when they are in flower it is far too cold and wet to go and look at them. However, it’s good to see your photographs of them. I do like aconites, but so do the mice, unfortunately. Ditches and bogs I leave for the summer, as you know.
Good to hear from you in the frozen north Kininvie! At least you get a rest from gardening, here it is ongoing for 12 months of the year and snowdrops make it all worthwhile! Never thought about mice taking the aconites, I’ve tried them a few times and they always disappear, I won’t waste any more of my money!! My bog is emerging from its slumbers with plants starting to grow again, all the candelabra seedlings that I meant to plant out last summer are starting into growth once more so will need planting soon so they can join in with the originals at flowering time. Hope you warm up soon!