I had another lovely day at West Green House in Hartley Wintney yet again yesterday (one of my favourite places – see last July’s blog).  We were lucky because we got a lovely day – that does NOT mean that there was bright sunshine but it did mean that we had a softly lit, Spring, warm day which meant that every plant looked beautiful.  This sort of light (after rain) very often makes the colours of the flowers shine out more – a very sunny day can take the subtleties of colour away from the lighter shades of green, cream and white that look so beautiful in a garden at this time of year. And colour is what it is all about in this garden. Marilyn Abbott, who is the owner of the beautiful Georgian house and garden, is incapable of going wrong with her colours – she mixes and matches as if she has a painter’s palette and although June/July is where you are going to be blown away by her wonderful colours there was still enough to illustrate her brilliance yesterday.

Here you can see a formally planted path with box hedging bursting into new bright green life and the hornbeams are just leafing so wonderfully fresh and green but look what’s beside them!  Bright red chinese dragons and purple red acers in early leaf!

and then a random field of narcissi  and apple blossom – totally white against the lush green lawn.Delicate and purple

And stunning reds ~(look at the stalks of the vegetable behind and the wallflowers in front) And a reminder of the garden in the summer – go there if you can!