It may be rather late to publish this – the trees have leafed since – but make a note in your diary to visit this lovely wood when the magnolias are out. These photos were taken on the 2nd of May, however going a week or so earlier would mean you could enjoy the camellias in flower as well.
Evenley Wood Garden is in south Northamptonshire, and is privately owned. It opens at weekends, however we went for the National Gardens Scheme charity opening. Northants. does not generally have acid soil, however there is a strip of it running through the middle of this wood, which means a wider variety of trees and shrubs can be grown including the beautiful flowering rhododendrons, magnolias and camellias. Round here we’d have to grow most of these in a pot!
On entering we decided to have a tea in the rustic cafe shelter to the tune of the electricity generator.. worth it, though, for the view outside the shelter:
While the magnolias had been out awhile, the rhododendrons were just flowering:
There are open spaces in the wood as well, filled with the most cowslips I’ve ever seen:
Here is a David Hockney-like view of the wood with emerging foliage.
The camellias could still be admired, though they were past their best.
Looking up through the new lemon-green oakleaves was a pleasure:
A massive waterfall of white flowers – Exochorda macrantha ‘The Bride’:
And finally, some ravishing Japanese maples, planted to show off their varying leaf colours, next to each other and the magnolias. What a show!
If you’d like to see these gardens in the summer, the Lily and Rose festival is on 20th June. Mattocks have just given Evenley a National rose collection, so there should still be flowers to see here.
