We started our garden tours with the visit to Château Hex, a highlight for us. We don't live far from it and have never been disappointed to spend some hours there. The owner opens his gardens twice a year, in June and in September.
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| The castle is not open to visitors, only the gardens are |
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| There are always beautiful stands to be admired |
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| and always nice things for sale, all is so natural and pleasant |
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| a feast for the eye |
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| in June, it gets the label 'rose festival' |
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| A painter artist offered special draws of your 'home' (top left) The house garden with the box hedges gets more and more holes - reminds me of my box knot |
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| stroll round |
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| the well has got a new roof recently |
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| I loved the rambler in the pear tree but it had no label |
Here are some pictures from the garden now. We have had glorious sunshine for many many days in June and enjoyed all meals 'al fresco' with guests or alone :-).
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| the view from the bedroom window, the rambler in the beech tree is Paul's Himalayan Musk' |
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| the climbers in the yard: 'Félicité et Perpétue' and right is a glimpse of 'AmericanPillar' |
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| a bunch of 'Albertine' and 'Constance Spry' inside |
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| 'Albertine' |
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| 'Constance Spry' |
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| The rose 'Alchymist' (top left) starts more apricot and fades later into light yellow |
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| top left is 'Buff Beauty' (made by EG :-) my poppies had no shocking colours this year below right is phlomis, interesting all year |
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| top left: 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'- top right 'Bredon' down left 'Raubritter', down right 'Madame Prevost' |
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| 'Teasing Georgia' with a rose bug - the very first time I saw one in our garden, he's got such a shiny armour :-) It must be heaven to hide in her petals. |
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| the crambe cordifolia behind the bench has done well this year because i gave it some support at the right time. In front is geranium psilostemon Patricia |
June is also my birthday and this is my special treat from EG:
We went yesterday to Malmédy, Les roses de Daniel (http://www.danielschmitz-roses.com/new-rosiers-de-warren
A new Australian breeder sells his roses through Daniel Schmitz and we went for the open days, it was also their 20th anniversary of the nursery.
For the very first time, these new roses were shown to the public and I felt very privileged to be able to see them (and to chose some of course).
These roses are said to be disease resistant and I am very curious to see how they will behave in our not so gentle conditions and climate. We were able to chat with Warren Millington himself and he claims that his roses grow so quick that diseases have no time to establish ;-). However, he advises to prune them regularly and quite severely.
It was difficult what to chose out of so many beautiful species.
They have very nice names, as well :-)
Here is only a selection of what was in flower, some were still a bit shy to show all of their grace. Note to myself: the one EG was fond of was Hilda Sophia Lehman, it might come home a next time...
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| on the right below is one which came home (Magical Moment) |
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| this made me laugh, the name is best bet but on the roses the label read 'best bed' |
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| Igraine looks very promising Isabelle et le Magicien d'Oz is the name of a rose without name which was given from Warren to Isabelle (she gave it its name) because she is the link between Warren and Daniel. See her blog on my blog roll on the right (A little bit of Paradise). Her rose was baptised yesterday and the sale of this rose goes entirely to fund raising for 'Télévie' -cancer research. |
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| Arahan was very tempting but Lilac Jewel came with us |
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| This had to come home! Such a pretty one and such a cute name. |
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| L'Oiseau Chanteur, *sigh* (der Singvogel, the singing bird) |
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| 'Love Crazy' the description said that it makes you fall in love, unmistakably |
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| Platinum Blonde is also now back home |
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| 'Wow Factor ' got its name right but Ruffled Burgundy came back home |
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| So delicate and light |
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| This one, I find, is as light as butterfly wings - was it 'Magical Moment'? |
The reason to have had time to post these pictures instead of planting my roses, is that -eventually- it rains. It was much needed but it could stop now, please.
