Trip to London Sept 2010 Part 2: The Gardens




Yellow Rose at Holland House

 

The yellow rose is a symbol of friendship. It was the obvious choice to begin this post.



Cottage in St. James Park

 

 As many of you know I LOVE flowers and gardens. So when I travel I want to see as many as possible and take photos!!  When we came across this charming cottage in St. James Park in downtown London I was both surprised and delighted! In a city of 8-10 million, it was so lovely!! And there were vegetables growing too! How I longed to open the gate and weed the garden!! And smell the roses. This cottage was originally lived in by a man who took care of the waterfowl that lived in the park. Obviously someone still lives there but I wasn't lucky enough to meet them. To the left was a waterway that went directly to Buckingham Palace.


In stark contrast to this informal garden and only a short distance away was Kensington Palace with its beautiful formal gardens. I was very disappointed because only one large garden was open to the public. The others were behind a tall plywood surround with a sign stating that the gardens were being restored. How I longed to see over that wall!!



Kensington Palace Gardens



A friendly couple walked past and offered to take our picture!

During our walks around the neighbourhood near the flat we saw many beautiful but small front gardens. I could have walked for miles and miles, snapping photos! Ha ha ha , I actually did that but what I was thinking was that I want to do it more!! Poor Jerry was always waiting for me so I took the pictures as fast as I could, without stopping more than 1-5 seconds at times.

Redcliffe Gardens neighbourhood





  

Petunias, geraniums and boxwood

One day on the way back from a bicycle ride, we took a new route and came across one of my all time favorite discoveries on a private little street called Colherne Mews. To access this street I had to ride my bike( drive ones car) under a stone arch onto a brick courtyard. Many gardeners lived here and they had the most interesting and pretty container gardens. I was really lucky the second time I biked past because I got to meet one couple and have a chat! They even had their front door color and flower colors coordinated!

Another Colherne Mews container garden. Lovely isn't it! The blue flowers to the left are plumbago. I grew them as a houseplant years ago.  I think they are native to Greece.

Rose Garden at Hampton Court Palace

Another garden which is dear to my heart was the rose garden at Hampton Court Palace! I could have spent hours and hours there just sitting on a park bench ,smelling the flowers and watching little English robins flitting about. I also met 2 interesting ladies there, one from Russia and the other a resident of the local village. I sat and talked to her for awhile on a bench. It was a strange feeling to think I could have walked home with her and been her close friend! I also spoke with an elderly couple who were talking about the varieties of roses. While we were visiting, the aroma was so strong that I felt transported back in time to my grandmother's. She had a small but fragrant rose garden that I loved to sit beside and breath deeply.  AHHH memories are so wonderful at times!

These flowers were in a public garden at Holland House. They were in a formal garden but up close they were informal. just lovely!



Near the fountain in Regent's Park

One evening we walked to Regent's Park looking for queen Mary's rose garden which has 30,000 rose bushes. It was indeed beautiful but past its bloom season, kind of disappointing, but I was grateful to see it . I need to go back in June!! However, we kept walking and found a large round pond and fountain with benches to sit and watch the squirrels and ducks from and rest our sore feet!!



Kyoto Japanese Garden

The Kyoto Japanese Garden was a quiet oasis in a large city! Huge koi swam slowly near the stone bridge one had to carefully balance to walk across. I wanted to just sit and read a book all afternoon here but I didn't have my book with me and I wanted to keep going...there was so much more to see! Every direction, there were signs big and small of people who loved to grow things. How I enjoyed seeing the small gardens such as the railing window boxes below. 




And little front plantings outside basement level flats. Gardeners everywhere!!  

Basement flats had gardens too!

Alexis's geraniums

One day I was sitting in the living room of the flat enjoying some fresh air(with the window open)  when the next door neighbour got home and spotted me. She was about my age and really friendly. I went over and stuck my head out and told her I enjoyed looking at her red geraniums which were growing in a planter on the window sill. Her name was Alexis.

I would love to keep on going and share more of the hundreds of pictures that I took of flowers and gardens but alas I don't have time. However I put a few to music. Enjoy!