Like many National Trust properties, the hall at Kedleston is closed, but I'm finding the ground and parkland to be good places for walking. Visits have to be booked, and numbers are limited, which gives ample space for social distancing.
On this latest visit we walked three miles following the Long Walk which encircles the Pleasure Grounds, but first I wanted to revisit the fabulous wildflower beds. Pictures of the lake and walk will follow, but first the flowers ...
I was last at Kedleston about three weeks ago, and in that time the flowerbeds have changed considerably - some flowers have run to seed, and others come into flower to replace them. The orange California poppies are still going strong, but the beds are now dominated by taller vibrant red and pink poppies interspersed with the cooler blue/purple shades of cornflowers, and yellow daisy-like flowers.
It's a glorious riot of colour, and I love this idea of filling formal beds with essentially wild flowers. I've wondered if there's a way to adapt it to my garden but annuals don't do well here as the perennials dominate and crowd any smaller plants out.
I think as well that this sort of planting scheme works best on a larger scale. Kedleston has several huge flower beds, probably each of them bigger than my lawn, and it's the huge sweep of flowers, and the informal mix backed by views of the hall, that creates such impact. Half a dozen straggly poppies would not be the same at all.
I'm hoping to get back to Kedleston in a couple of weeks - there are more walks to take in the wider parkland, and I want to see what changes there are in these wildflower beds.
No comments:
Post a Comment