The Savill Garden near London reveals unique beauty

While descending a soft woodland path, the gentle songs of birds with unfamiliar calls ring through the forest from the tops of trees in The Savill Garden near London. Large ferns are unfurling while azaleas and rhododendrons flowers begin their inevitable decline. Puffy white clouds drift overhead as the garden reveals itself.
Exploring a garden for the first time at your own pace is always a thrill, but this one has something special to offer from the start.

I wish we could grow primrose this beautifully in our climate. Photos by Doug Oster

While strolling through the Hidden Gardens, jealous of the stunning red primrose that grow so easily in this climate, I’m stunned to discover a plant I’ve never seen growing outdoors before. The blue Himalayan poppy is notoriously hard to grow, at least that’s what I’ve heard from the experts at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. I can’t tell if this one has been transplanted to this bed or grew here on its own. Even though there aren’t a lot of people in this part of the garden, a friendly Dutch couple wait patiently as I study the plant. They smile and say “thank you” as I momentarily stop taking pictures. “I’ve never seen it in the wild before,” I repeated enthusiastically. As they headed off to explore the garden I continued marveling and photographing the sky blue flowers set off by luminescent yellow primroses.

It was quite a site to see this blue poppy in the Hidden Gardens.

A tiny pond filled with a family of ducks draws interest from everyone including young children and elderly visitors alike. They are tame and don’t mind all the attention.

How can you not love baby ducks. They eat slugs too!

The garden isn’t vast, so it’s not overwhelming, feels cozy too. Even on Sunday afternoon, a walk through the garden isn’t packed with people, making a visit relaxing.
The flowers of one hybrid rhododendron are so beautiful, the gardeners have left the spent blooms at the base of the plant. It’s a nice touch that many places wouldn’t think to do.
The garden is filled with layers of colors and textures. One view begins with tall pinkish white rhododendrons giving way to Japanese maples, then drift of purple iris and some low growing bright red tulips in front of everything.

It was a nice touch to leave these spent blooms at the base of a rhododendron.

The queen herself planted an interesting tree in 1982 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Savill Garden. The variegated tulip tree was another new plant for me, I hope it’s something that could grow in our climate.
Red heuchera flowers are covered with bees who can’t resist the blooms. Just like seeing new and unique plants, some of the bees don’t look familiar at all. It’s fun just to sit and watch them do their job.

There were lots of interesting bees feeding on the flowers.

In the corner of the rose garden is a white flowering aromatic clematis which smells like vanilla. I didn’t want to leave is smelled so nice. On the roof of a small cottage are a smattering of hens and chicks, which most people walk right by on their visit, just as I probably missed many interesting and wonderful details.
The rose garden is still waiting to put on it’s true show, but ‘Princess Anne,’ a David Austin rose is blooming and smells like heaven.
It take several hours to get introduced to The Stavill Garden, but probably decades to really get to know the place, watching seasonal metamorphosis.
I hope to see it again at another time of the year to discover the changes this amazing place will have to offer.