A Healthy Obsession with Plants and Nature

Today I was meant to a be at a Reiki Festival in London but for various logistical reasons, it couldn’t happen. So I had to do something that would feed my soul and other passions - and it seemed that a day immersed in nature and the world of plants and gardening was the next best thing. 

And so it was that I took myself off to the Plant Collectors Fair at the very fine Adlington Hall and Gardens in my neighbouring county of Cheshire. It has been a few years - not helped by Covid - since I was last here, but I have to say that a lot of work has gone into the place in the intervening years. The house is beautiful - part brick, part timbered, but the grounds certainly looked far better tended than I remember them being. There was always a slight air of neglect about the place, but today everything was looking absolutely splendid! The lawns were neatly mowed, the borders were pristine, the rose garden was immaculate, the maze had been clipped and re-planted where necessary, and the woodland garden was simply nature in its finest attire. The rhododendrons and azaleas were in dazzling full bloom, the tree canopy was vibrant green and the bluebells - well, what can I say? If ever you wanted the quintessential experience of an English Bluebell wood, then you had it there today. Those delightful bow-headed beauties carpeted the ground in heaven-scented clouds of blue, little woodland paths meandering through them leaving you with their sweet perfume in your nostrils and birdsong in your ears and sun filtered down through the lime-green canopy dappling the scene with shafts of light and shade. Could there be more perfect a way to spend a spring Sunday? I think not…

Beyond this bombardment of bluebells, there was plenty more beauty to admire…

The laburnum arch on the way to the rose garden and maze

A folly in the woods

What a majestic tree

The plant fair and fine facade

Bridge over untroubled water

The medieval part of the house

Woodland vistas

Perfect blooms

Bluebells and wild garlic - a winning woodland combo!

New leaves

A splash of colour in the woodland

T’Ing House, 1754

Tulips in the walled garden

Gateway to Heaven

Temple to Diana with vista to Cascade

Formality in the walled garden 

The laburnum archway just about to burst into bloom

But let’s not forget the plants that I came here to buy…!

A bootful to keep me happy! 

Having been to the garden centre yesterday (not realising the plant fair was on today!), I have rather a large task ahead of me finding the perfect place for them round the garden and getting them nestled into that Spring-warmed soil. It was a job I began when I got home, but that’s a story for another day.