I had to make a difficult decision on Monday evening - which garden to visit on my final day on my Manchester expedition
I reduce stress, we wanted somewhere close to the airport.
I narrowed it down to two: - Dunham Massey (
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-dunhammassey/) and Arley Hall & Gardens, Northwich, Cheshire
I picked Arley.
http://www.arleyhallandgardens.comI have to say, its one of the best gardens Ive had the pleasure to visit.
For most of the afternoon, the weather was perfect for my photography, bright and overcast. I took lots of photos in those favourable conditions, then the sun came out and we had a lovely sunny warm day - the conditions favoured by the other members of our party.
We arrived in time for lunch. Like an excited kid, I had a quick dive into a Rose Garden before joining the others. The plans were discussed - they were going to have a tour of the Hall (turned out to be a fantastic experience) while yours truly would be where guys know best - up the gardens. They had a pleasant walk around the gardens and we met up in the Cottage Shrub Rose garden.
In the web site above, you'll see a photo of the herbaceous borders.
One word describes it all: Immaculate
I was quite lucky - I'd say it was at its peak flowering time. Most flowers were in bloom. Those that weren't fully at their peak had a few blooms, a teaser as to what is to follow in a week or two.
Theres a fantastic Walled Garden, with a very good border all around the walls. Beautiful
Then, theres a lovely shrub rose garden, built around a cottage. Very very impressive.
In the Cottage garden, I found one of the ground staff at work, and congratulated him and his colleagues on the quality of the gardens. I could see he was every bit as enthusiastic as me!
I introduced Flower Genie, and he then introduced me to another staff member who might be interested.
I'm delighted to say he was, and we had a good chat about the gardens and how to use the software to document the delights we had in front of us.
Finally, I had just enough time to have a quick look into the Scented garden.
Ive been in scented gardens before and would have had to read the label to remind me where I was.
Not so in Arley's scented garden. I picked the scent up on entry, and all the way around the garden. It was a small garden, stuffed with plants, so as you walked through you sometimes brushed against plants with scented foliage.
The sun was beaming at that stage, so my photos are not as good as I'd have liked, but good enough to capture the plants.
An absolutely wonderful day out. If you are in the region, be sure to pay it a visit. Thoroughly recommended by George!
