Wow for Westonbirt.

We have had the most wonderful visit to Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire, a few days ago, to experience all the fantastic autumn tints that they have at this time of year, and I have just got to share the photos with you. There are not many places that I have been to that have stopped me in my tracks because the “wow” factor has been so great, but believe me, there was a “wow” round every corner at Westonbirt.

This woodland was originally planted at the height of Victorian plant hunting era in the mid nineteenth century.

Today Westonbirt is one of the finest tree collections in the world, ( according to their leaflet) laid out within a Grade 1 listed landscape.

Their collection of Acers is absolutely amazing, but what shows them to their best advantage, are all the huge conifers and evergreens.

Some of the colours were so subtle, absolutely beautiful. I felt it was quite useful to include other members of the public in the photos to show the scale of the trees.

Autumn is obviously the highlight of Westonbirt’s year with Spindles,Chestnuts,Birches and of course the stars of the show, all the different Acers with their red, orange and yellow leaves.

I don’t think I need to add anything to this one, it speaks for itself.

Getting inside all the branches gives a different perspective and seems to make the colours glow.

The official Acer glade is what everyone has come to see and it certainly lived up to its reputation, fantastic colours.

Everyone seems to fall silent as they enter Acer glade, as if they are overcome by the beauty of the place, it really is a magnificent kaleidoscope of colour.

Is this what they mean by retina searing red?

The dark trunk and branches give a japanese look to the tree and contrast with the glowing leaves.

More gentle colours further round in the woodland.

Round every corner, there was something special waiting for you.

Even at the edge of the woodland special trees have been planted, all these tall trees date back 150 yrs, some of them are even “champion” trees. This means that they are either the tallest of their variety growing in the UK or the oldest or the one with the widest girth around the trunk.

Lime avenue, not the fruiting lime which we eat but Tilia europaea which grows to 150ft. I mention this one specially because lime wood is the wood given to students when they start carving as it is the softest of the hard woods and therefore easy to carve. Where will students get their wood in the future, nobody is planting lime avenues anymore?

This tree put out the red carpet for us.

Had to wait a long time to get this photo without too many people in it, they were all wanting to photograph the view, can’t blame them. I hope you agree, it was worth the wait.

This is a close up of one of the above trees, I thought they were such a pretty combination of colours with the pink, yellow and green.

As you walk along you can’t help but feel dwarfed by such ancient trees, magnificent.

Our last look at the beautiful colours in the Old Arboretum.   Silk Wood, at the other side of the Arboretum, is very different, there are plenty of new exotic plantings, but at its heart it is a traditional working woodland dating back as far as 13th Century.

We made our way back to the visitor centre and look what I found – a carving for me to photograph! This was carved out of the base of a tree with a chainsaw-fantastic.

I hope you have enjoyed your wander with me around Westonbirt and have been as amazed as I was at all the colour everywhere, with hopefully a little wow or two along the way .  I really enjoyed our time spent there, came home exhausted, but it was soooooo worth it, I hope you think so too!