Visit to The Old Vicarage, Washington
- Chair
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
On a rare sunny day in February, DHHS members trekked down to the Old Vicarage in Washington, West Sussex to explore Lady Walters’ beautiful garden. Looking at gardens in the winter and early spring not only means gorgeous spring blossoms but it always gives one a chance to see the structure or backbone of a garden. Evergreen trees and shrubs combined with deciduous hedges can provide a real focal point all year round. The Japanese garden, woodland area and select borders had wonderful displays of snowdrops and hellebores giving the whole garden a little burst of light and cheer. The gardeners were prepping borders by cutting back and mulching, root pruning plants growing in pots, and looking at areas that needed fresh planting. The Old Vicarage is open on Thursdays under the National Garden Scheme, and we would highly recommend a visit. https://ngs.org.uk/an-accidental-evolution-the-old-vicarage-west-sussex/
Also in February, we enjoyed an extremely informative talk by expert flower farmer Claire Brown from Plantpassion on what shrubs and herbaceous plants can provide flowers for the garden and vase all year. Her presentation was beautifully illustrated, highlighting 3-4 plants each month, plus a bonus tip. Her observation that many of the bunches of flowers we purchase at florists and grocery stores come from places like Kenya, Ethiopia, Columbia and Israel means an alarming number of air miles and a true lack of sustainability. If growing cut flowers isn’t an option for you, we are blessed to have several flower farms up around us and we would highly recommend that you seek them out when looking for cut flowers. They are seasonal, fragrant and sustainable – what could be better! For March, Claire’s recommendations for the vase are narcissus, flowering thyme, anemones and muscari. Remember vases don’t need to be large as a small vase of fragrant herbs, muscari or iris reticulata can have a large impact indoors.
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