Trip to Howick

[ChrisB]

 A few pictures from my trip to Howick Gardens, Northumberland, last week.

[Armin]

Chris,
a wonderful Garden and so many snowtrops.
Are there crocus too?

[Maggi Young]

My goodness, no shortage of the white stuff. Christine, I will move this to the "Travel/Places to visit" section, I think  .....

[vivienr]

Lovely to see the pictures of Howick, Christine. It brings back childhood memories. It used to be a fairly quiet garden but I believe it has a lot more visitors now because it is so close to the Alnwick garden. It is worth visiting later too for the daffodils and some lovely patches of Trilliums.

[ChrisB]

Hi Armin,  Yes, there are some crocus there, but I believe they are the usual ones, growing mingled with the snowdrops.  I did take one or two photos, but the blue of the crocus didn't register well with my wee digital camera so I didn't post those pics.  I'm not sure their crocus are species, but a lot of the plants they grow, are from seed, so it is feasible some might be species, though the ones I spotted certainly looked like they came from commericial sources.

Thanks for moving, Maggi, I'm hopeless at choosing the right place to put things on this forum.  Not your fault of course, I'm just never sure where the best place is, so anytime, do feel free to move me 

Vivien - the good old days of Howick are now gone I'm afraid.  Time was there was an honesty box to put your money in and you could take your dog in and suchlike, but also, the Earl Grey Tearooms and toilets didn't exist either.  When we went it was a lovely day, and there must have been nearly 200 cars in the carpark, but with the grounds being so big, it was easy to lose people and enjoy it regardless.  It does have a  much higher profile now than it did in the old days, but I'm glad more people are discovering it.  Its my favourite amongst the gardens up here in the North East, and also closest for me.  The cakes in the tea rooms are not bad either after a healthy walk around the gardens  .

The arboretum is going to be the crowning glory of the gardens by the end of this century, though.  Robert Jamieson, the head gardener, takes regular trips to various continents in search of tree seed, and they are growing well in the arboretum.  The walk down from the garden to the fishing village of Craster is lined with this arboretum now, and there are so many species growing there is amazing, and all seed grown.

[Paddy Tobin]

Chris,

Obviously, a lovely place to visit. Paddy

[vivienr]

The cakes in the tea rooms are not bad either after a healthy walk around the gardens  .

Yes, the tea room is very elegant and not overpriced. I went for an easter visit about two years ago.  I had gone for a first visit to Alnwick garden which I found to be very disappointing - hardly a flower to be seen when the whole of Northumberland was flowering its socks off outside the gates. After less than an hour at Alnwick I took off to Howick to see a proper garden.

[ChrisB]

Easter is a little early for the rhodos and meconopsis and a little late for the snowdrops.  My favourite time is mid May.  Know what you mean about Alnwick, its a good place to take a family I suppose, but its not for me.  My favourite bit of Alnwick is the poison garden and the huge clump of cannabis sativa growing there, trying to break out of the iron cage its in.

[Armin]

Hi Chris,
it is a bit pity regarding the crocus images.
For me it is not always necessary to post the rarest species.
I'm delighted with the simple things, too.

[ChrisB]

Armin,

The blue/mauve crocus mingled with the snowdrops were a sight to behold.  Gave me the idea for doing this in my own garden next year!  They grow a lot of bulbs, and their tulip meadow, planted every year, is quite a sight, with the grasses growing tall and the rainbow of tulip colours poking through them.  The garden is always lovely to walk around, but the trees the are growing will be just super in another 50 years time.  Some are maturing already, and they have a lot of more mature trees around the property anyway.  I just love this place..... as you can tell!

[Armin]

Chris,
good luck for your garden plans
I'll be happy to see your pictures in the future.   

[ChrisB]

Next trip will be just after Easter.....

[Peter Maguire]

I thought that I would post an update this topic, as the venue is the same.
Our local group (including Chris) had a visit to Howick last Sunday. It was my first trip there outside of the snowdrop season, and the woodland and bog gardens were full of colour. Slightly cloudy weather in the morning when we had a guided tour, but after a reviving cream tea in the tea room, the sun came out so I repeated our route from the morning. These are some of the plants we saw:

General view of the bog garden
Anemone rivularis in bog garden
Aquilegia (hybrid?) next to pond in formal garden
Dicentra spectabilis
Eremurus in the slightly overgrown, former kitchen garden
Iris (?sibirica) in the bog garden
Magnolia, species/hybrid not labelled
Magnolia wilsonii

[Peter Maguire]

Meconopsis integrifolia (I assume)
Mec. napaulensis red form - only one or two of these
Mec. napaulensis yellow form'
Meconopsis (?betonicifolia 'Hensol Violet') - most of their blue meconopsis were over, but this group were still in full flower. I'm not sure of the name, however, nor some of the following candelabra primulas.
Primula 1 & 2 - possilby Primula japonica alba

[Peter Maguire]

Primula 3 & 4 - possibly Primula bulleyana
Primula prolifera. I'm sure about this one, John Richards was there to confirm it.
Primula viallii - unmistakable!
There were many Rhododendrons around, this large Rh. 'King George' looked wonderful in the bright sunlight.
Even after flowering, the Rhododenrons put on a wonderful show