Chatsworth - purples, pinks, and a wild splash of yellow

It's strange, but true, that I can visit Chatsworth gardens year after year, and still find something new new to delight in. Obviously a garden doesn't stand still. Some plants may die over winter or a summer drought, and need to be replaced. A new bed or border added. A wonderful flower or tree spotted in another garden that HAS to be found a place. None of these thoughts really applied though to the flowers which struck me most this visit. 

I've seen the peony borders in the cutting garden before, but never apparently at their best. This visit they were absolutely gorgeous, just caught at their perfect moment - neither wrapped in tight buds not overblown - and in almost every possible shade of pink.

I love the mix of round head of peonies with the tall stately foxgloves (even if they are 'wild' flowers). It's a perfect combination.

Moving on to the gardens by the Maze. Again a moment of catching plants at their peak - this time tall spires of delphiniums towering over the froth of what I think is thalictrum. 

Beautiful, both close to, and when seen from above as we headed to Arcadia, the series of glades that now wind along the hillside. 

 Here and in the rock gardens by the Strid the planting scheme is paler - irises again, astrantia, and a stunning peony.

 

Carry on to the furthest end of the garden, and you'll meet a sudden riot of colour with candelabra primulas lining the stream which trickles down from the Grotto Pond. These again were flowers that I'd seen before but never looking quite so fabulous.

My photographs have struggled to capture quite what a joyous colourful mix this is.

Almost, but not quite, last, a re-worked area of the garden. For many years these beds were filled with roses, then when something problematic was discovered in the soil they were replaced by wildflower beds, and now they've been planted up with a variety of flowers all within the pink to purple to blue range.

At the moment irises are the stars here but the lavender is in bud, continuing the colour theme, then I expect other similarly coloured flowers to follow through the summer. Going back to see this area develop is a good excuse for another trip out.

Despite my own garden being a mismatch of every colour, I love that here one palette continues through the whole garden but I promised a wild splash of yellow, didn't I? 

All around the edges and less trodden areas of the garden you'll find small wildflower sections; banks of buttercups interspersed with orchids and clover, growing naturally through the uncut grass

but reaching the end of the Arcadia walk a glimpse of yellow appears, 

and as it comes clearly into view is revealed as a mini meadow 

filled with buttercups and oxeye daisies 

I've seen this area developing over the past couple of years, and had assumed the buttercups in there were accidental, to be weeded out as other plants grew. But it seems they weren't, and aren't they just wonderful?