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Autumn colour at Stourhead
How fortunate we were to choose last Friday (November 2nd) for a visit to Stourhead! Lots of sunshine, and still a fair amount of colour, although this doesn’t seem to have been an outstanding Autumn- not surprising after the Summer we’ve had perhaps.
Hard to take an original picture here, but you might like to share the views with me!
A wander at Pennington
Yesterday was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to Pennington Nature Reserve, in the South of Hampshire – about half an hour from home! It was such a glorious sunny October day, with hardly a breath of wind (& the wind is often biting down there!)
The cows weren’t bothered by the bogginess underfoot!
I DO love teasels, and believe me these are just a few of the pics I took! The goldfinches must be very happy when they find them- we did see some big flocks of them around!
There were so many swans around- too many to count- that it was impossible to resist the odd ‘reflective’ moment! (but I did regret not taking my SLR and tripod! These were all taken with iPhone!)
There were a lot of birds to be seen – time to start learning my ducks and waders again! I always forget them each year! My husband reckoned he saw 47 species (not that he was counting, of course!)
That was a large flock of godwits- black-tailed I think- with many more species mingling! There were some beautiful Lapwings to be seen too- really should have taken better camera!!
We walked as far as Kehaven, then returned by the inland path.
There were plenty of berries around for the birds- Hawthorn, Honeysuckle, a garden escapee Cotoneaster (franchettii?), and lots of blackberries still!
And the bees must be happy to see all the flowers on the gorse- what would they do without gorse?!
Nerines at Exbury
How fortunate that today was a beautiful sunny day, for I was lucky enough to have an invitation to Exbury gardens to see not only their public display of Nerines (which is wonderful), but also to see behind the scenes!
After an introductory talk, we proceeded to view the plants on display, a stunning show!
Nerine flowers range in colour from white, through all shades of pink, to reds, and some of them sparkle as if they’ve been sprinkled with glitter! They focus on the sarniensis hybrids here, which need to be kept frost-free.
Claudine Laabs
Nerine Lepanto
Nerine Enchantress
Nerine Lady Eleanor Keane – a really sparkly one!
There were other South African bulbs on display too.
Haemanthus coccineus
Haemanthus albiflos
Velthemia capensis
Cirtanthus sang. horseshoe
Boophone disticha
Lycoris aurea
We were treated to a short but interesting talk from Margaret Owen, holder of the National Collection of Nerine bowdenii, who had come down from Shropshire!
Then we were off to see the ENORMOUS glasshouses, housing all sorts of fascinating stuff, including hundreds of Nerines, mostly in bud.
A portion of the area! What a sight that’ll be when the buds open!
I particularly like the smaller species Nerines (that won’t surprise anyone who knows me!) This is N. braechiae.
And Nerine humilis…
There were some beautiful Oxalis too, this one Ken Aslet
And I liked (actually, coveted) Oxalis lutea
And so I came home with my small, but fairly costly(!) haul of new Nerines.
Sweet Sixteen:
The excitingly named 5448 28571C!
And 5 species Nerines, of which only N. filifolia and breachiae (shown earlier) are flowering (but I’m excited about ALL of them!)
But I mustn’t leave out my ‘old’ Nerines, only 2 of which are in flower now. N. bowdenii is very late here this year (I know why now!)
And slightly tender N. Stephanie has just opened.
Exbury gardens are situated on the Southern side of the New Forest. The display of Nerines goes on until early November, and they should last well this year, being later than normal. The garden is well worth a visit, and autumn colour should develop soon if we get some cool nights!
I believe that RHS members have free entry from October to spring!!
