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Spring Bursts Through at The Royal Landscape with Daffodils, Magnolias, Camellias, Japanese Cherries, Rhododendrons and AzaleasInternationally famous for their spring display, The Royal Landscape’s Valley Gardens and The Savill Garden will be spectacular this year. From the largest drifts of naturalised daffodils in England and the famous collection of the Kurume Azaleas in the Punch Bowl in the Valley Gardens, to stunning rhododendrons, camellias, magnolias and the Savill Garden’s Spring Wood, there is something spectacular to see around every corner. Mark Flanagan, Keeper of the Gardens, explains: “Spring is a glorious time of year at The Royal Landscape. The Savill Garden boasts a range of spring plants for which the Garden is rightly famed. The Valley Gardens provide a larger canvas for the many spectacular spring plants in an extensive woodland setting.” One of horticulture’s best kept secrets will reveal itself in March and April when the magnificent display of naturalised daffodils in the Valley Gardens flowers. From humble beginnings, with a scattering of bulbs and seeds, the carpet of flowers has spread spectacularly to become probably the largest of its kind in England. The National Collection of Rhododendron species grows in the Valley Gardens, with over 2,000 plants reaching their flowering peak in April. This important international collection includes rhododendrons from all around the temperate world, especially the mountainous Himalayas and China. New plants are added every year including many recent introductions from the wild. A perfect accompaniment to the Rhododendrons are the Japanese cherries which flourish in the Valley Gardens in April. The Prunus ‘Accolade’ produces masses of pink flowers in pendant clusters in April. One of the last cherries to flower is Prunus ‘Shogetsu’ whose white flowers, blushed pink, are exquisite. The Camellia Garden in the Valley Gardens reaches its prime with great arching branches of pink, cream and red flowers set along meandering paths in March and April. Look out for the older cultivars ‘Lady Clare’ with pink, semi-double flowers and ‘Adolphe Audusson’ with large, blood-red flowers. In the New Camellia Garden, planted up in the 1970’s and 1980’s, visitors will enjoy more recent cultivars such as ‘Jury’s Yellow’ with unusual creamy yellow anemone-form flowers and ‘Glenn’s Orbit’, one of the better known recent cultivars. The Savill and Valley Gardens are home to the National Collection of Magnolias with over 300 species and cultivars which are at their prime in March and April. They fall into two groups, the most spectacular are those which produce their flowers before the leaves emerge (precocious magnolias). Magnolia ‘Charles Raffill’ is an example of this group with huge pink flowers making a magnificent spectacle. The second group produce their flowers later in the season with the leaves and are less showy. However, they are still amongst the most beautiful of flowering trees and shrubs. In early May, the Valley Gardens are at their most resplendent when the Japanese Kurume Azaleas, first collected by the English plant hunter Ernest Henry Wilson in 1918, are in full blaze in the famous Punch Bowl. The dramatic wooded landscape offers fresh spectacles at every turn. Visitors will also be able to enjoy late flowering Magnolias which are part of the National Collection; the spring heathers in the Heather Garden; and the splendour of champion trees bedecked in their new leaves. In The Savill Garden, the Glades are a sea of sunlit grasses and yellow daffodils. Along the pondsides, the bold yellow and white shield-like flowers of the stinking skunk cabbages thrust up through the mud. Ferns begin to push up crozier-shaped fronds, while soon the magnolias, cherries, camellias, pieris, rhododendrons and azaleas compete with showy multicoloured displays. In Spring Wood, the mature trees spread their leaves over a stunning spectacle of rhododendrons, camellias, magnolias and other flowering woodland plants.
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Notes to Editors: For more press information call Sarah Halstead, Marketing Dept, The Crown Estate, on 07918 121905 or email sarah.halstead@thecrownestate.co.uk |
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