Garden Tour

Now I know why the British adore their gardens. The climate and soil and perfect for spring gardens here and so many beautiful flowers and plant grow well and for many weeks (unlike the short growing season of the Midwest). Throughout the city of Oxford, it smells like one big lilac since they are blooming and grow everywhere. White, lavender and dark purple lilacs are abundant and beautiful. Supposedly, everything is blooming almost a month early, since we've had so much sun in April. Which I think is great, but the British are all very worried about it and think it forecasts another extreme heat summer. I say "bring it on!" and anything to them over 75 degrees F, is too hot. So I'm guessing we'll be okay.

This past Monday, I went on a garden tour with the Newcomers. I was with a tad bit older crowd this time (they all could have been my mother in terms of age) and yet still had a great time. Three of us were British, four were American and three were Japanese. We rode in cars to a village south of Oxford called Garsington. In the village is Garsington Manor, which was originally owned by one of the well-known brewery families in the area. Now it's owned by another very well-to-do-family, and they have a production company which stages operas in the summer on the garden grounds. Check out www.garsingtonopera.org to get an idea of this gorgeous place. We looked into ticket prices and this is definitely an activity for the very high class of Oxford and London. Tickets start at 100 pounds per person per show and that is if you were already a "Friend" of the opera (which means you've already donated a ton more money each year). So I think we'll have to pass on that one! Viewing the gardens was really great, but I'm not much for knowing my plants or flower names. It's funny to be around the British when they get excited about one thing in the garden and it's like a 30 minute discussion on this one item. Actually this happened on the tour when we spotted some rhubarb growing. Was at least a 20 minute chat among a few ladies about how to grow it, how to prepare it, how to cook it, etc! Needless to say I sort of zoned out with that and found some more things to take pics of.

For lunch we stopped at a nearby plant nursery since they had a cafeteria. We don't quite do it like that in the States, but it's very common here.


In the afternoon, we visited the University of Oxford arboretum. At first I wasn't too sure how much I might like looking at trees all afternoon. But we were on the hunt to find the fields of blue bells since they are indigenous to England and this is time they are in bloom. We were successful, and it was quite a sight. Seemed as though a whole field had a purplish-blue blanket on it that just went on forever. We then walked through areas of azaleas and rhododendrons, which some were in bloom, but others had not yet. And it was fun to find the resident peacocks living in the arboretum. One was leisurely enjoying a picnic next to a family and the other was showing off its feathers. I can't remember if I'd seen a peacock, so I had fun taking some pics.