My Traveling Joys: flowers

Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Delightful Dahlias in Cornwall UK

9/10/2020 03:00:00 AM by Joy2 comments

Driving down the tiny, rural lanes in Cornwall means you often end up reversing or finding a spot to pull over when you meet another car in the road.

But sometimes, you might end up reversing because you saw the most incredible burst of color and you just had to find out what it was. Luckily, I had checked in my rearview mirror before doing this.

In early August, during our UK staycation in Cornwall, I was driving near Penzance and happened to see this flash of color which turned out to be a field of dahlias by the National Dahlia Collection. This garden features more than 1,600 different varieties of dahlias and is free to visit from June to September. It is impressive!

You can even see St. Michael's Mount located in Marazion in the distance here.

This collection was first established in 1983 in Oxfordshire by a private collector, David Brown, who wanted to preserve dahlias when the flowers were growing out of fashion in the 80s and 90s. Over the years, the collection moved until it happened at is current location. If you are a keen gardener, you can even order dahlia tubers and garden ready plants online or at the collection when it is open.

Dahlias are one of those flowers that blooms prolifically from late summer to autumn. I’ve always admired these flowers, but I don’t have much room at our London flat to grow much more than some potted herbs and veggies.

But the English have long loved dahlias especially during the Victorian era. When the Horticultural Society (later RHS) started regular flower shows in 1831, its September event was dedicated entirely to dahlias. In 1881, the National Dahlia Society was started in the UK.

Did you know that by the 1930s – at the height of their popularity – there were 14,000 named dahlia varieties?
And did you know that dahlias are the national flower of Mexico? Dahlias are wildflowers in Mexico and Central America but were brought to Europe by a Spanish expedition in the late 1700s and later cultivated.

· On our trip, I spent about an hour at the garden taking dozens and dozens of photos of the colorful blooms and trying to capture the honeybees in action. Now, if only, I could have my own garden like this.

Pompon Dahlias

Decorative Dahlias

Waterlilly Dahlias

Misc Dahlias

Lovely Orchids at Kew Gardens in London

3/31/2020 06:16:00 PM by Joy2 comments

Before the world became consumed by everything related to Covid-19, I simply used to enjoy the beautiful flowers out and about in London.

During February and half of March, Kew Gardens in London hosted its annual Orchids Festival. The 25^th annual orchid festival featured the incredible wildlife and vibrant culture of Indonesia – an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, including Java, Borneo, Papua and Bali. The festival showcased Indonesia’s diverse landscape from tropical rainforests to spectacular volcanos, which was the main focus in the central pond area. Here, the garden staff had created a volcano with orchids!

Did you know that Indonesia has at least 4,000 species of orchids, as well as many other plants that can be found only on certain islands in the archipelago? We’ve only visited Bali so far, but I would love see more of this beautiful country?

Every year, the Orchids Festival at Kew Gardens never fails to impress me. The displays are filled with such vibrant orchids as you can see from my photos.

Blue Orchids

Although these Phalaenopsis orchids were dyed blue, there really are rare blue orchids in Indonesia. In 1938, British entomologist Evelyn Cheesman collected samples of the extremely rare blue orchid Dendrobium azureum. In 2017, a local Indonesian conservationist discovered examples of this rare species out in the wild.

Z Orchids

Zygopetalum orchids have small blooms and only consist of 15 recognized species. The blooms usually are green and brown striped or speckled and have a velvety lip. They are quite unique!

Pitcher Plants

Bizarre pitcher plants, a type of carnivorous plants, made a good showing at the festival as well. The bulb part of the plants trap the bugs that the plants feed on.

A cute orangutan made from plants amongst the orchids.

Who knew that orchids bloom in nearly every shade of the rainbow and beyond?

Hope you enjoy the orchid photo show!

Cycling to Hever Castle – Childhood Home of Anne Boleyn

8/14/2019 03:00:00 AM by JoyNo comments

Day Trip from London

Fairytale dreams of little girls often are filled with castles, but big girls like myself, also enjoy spending a real day at a castle too.

Did you know that England has more than 1,500 castle sites? I figured I would start by visiting the castles that are within an easy reach from London.

With work and weekend trips, I don’t get to update this blog like I used to when we first moved abroad in 2010. And even when I have a mid-weekday off, I often make the effort to take a day trip from London as well.

Exploring Hever Castle & Gardens

One destination that has been on my to-do list was the magnificent, moated Hever Castle, which is an easy day trip to do from London. I took a train from Clapham Junction, had a brief transfer at Oxted, then disembarked at Hever Station and cycled one mile up to the castle. (Trains also depart from London Victoria and London Bridge.) You easily could walk the mile along the country roads to the castle too.

Of course, you’ll pass a cozy-looking, half-timbered pub named after King Henry VIII.

Inside Hever Castle, I visited the rooms where Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII’s second wife, spent her youth, and where the King courted her as well. Anne Boleyn was the Queen of England for just 1,000 days, mother of Queen Elizabeth I and the woman who convinced Henry VIII to renounce Catholicism and create the Church of England so the pair could marry.

The castle later passed ownership onto another of Henry VIII’s wives, Anne of Cleves, as part of their marriage annulment settlement. The rooms feature a mix of historical styles from the 15^th century to the 20^th century, from Tudor-era half-timbered walls and finely woven tapestries to a 100-year-old telephone and plush pink sofas.

It is traditionally believed that Henry VIII stayed several times at Hever Castle. The ceiling here dates from 1462 and is the oldest in the castle.

Today, much of what you see in the castle is the restored efforts by William Waldorf Astor, the former New Yorker tycoon who moved to England in the 1890s and bought the run-down castle in 1903. He used his fortune to restore and extend the castle in the early 20th century, including a 100-room wing in the Tudor style. The Astor Suite is decorated in the 20^th-century style and showcases pictures and memorabilia relating to the Astor family and the Edwardian period.

My only regret is visiting Hever Castle in August. It didn’t register with my brain that local children are still on summer break, so the castle was a popular destination for young families.

Gorgeous Italian Gardens

But outside the castle walls was the real highlight for me! Astor also spent his money and employed hundreds of staff to transform the castle’s small, modest garden to a gorgeous Italian Garden that would be at home at any Italian palazzo. Covering four acres, the garden features long sweeping lawns, marble columns lining the pergola walkway, blooming rose and perennial beds and marble sculptures, some 2,000 years old.

At the manmade lake end of the garden is the impressive Loggia, flanked by classical Roman sculptures inspired by the Trevi Fountain. Who needs to visit Rome when you have this?

Cycling to Chiddingstone

After spending several hours at Hever Castle, I finally cycled onto the small, nearby village of Chiddingstone, about 15-minutes away by bike, but on a much hillier route than I had anticipated. What’s interesting here is that the entire village, apart from the church and Chiddingstone Castle, is owned by the National Trust. Chiddingstone is described as being “the most perfect surviving example of a Tudor village in the county,” which seems relevant given its proximity to the Tudor-era Hever Castle.

I stopped at the Castle Inn to have a classic pub lunch of a pint of Kentish cider and a cheeseburger with chips. I figured I had earned all those calories after cycling up those hills!

It’s worth having a wander around the village to admire the preserved half-timbered buildings, the 16^th-century St. Mary the Virgin Church as well as the Chiddingstone Castle. The castle has Tudor origins, Victorian rooms and was remodeled in the 19th century to resemble a medieval castle. Astor also owned this castle at one point, but the last owner, art collector Denys Eyre Bower, bought it 1955 to house his extensive art collection. Today, the castle is open to the public on select days and would be the perfect backdrop for a romantic wedding.

Travelling by bike in the Kentish countryside meant I also got to see other Tudor-era houses and old brick hop houses which Kent is famous for. The cultivation of hops was imported from Flanders (present-day northern Belgium) to Kent and the surrounding counties as early as the 15^th century and reached its heyday during the 17^th-19^th centuries. (You can read more about Britain’s history of hops here.)