We visited Bodnant in 2016, and pronounced it the best we'd seen. In 2022, I think we saw it in its prime, and again have to give it the superlative. All these gardens we are seeing are different and incommensurable, but Bodnant has the greatest variety, drama, color, peripheral features, and so on. And then there's the Laburnum Arch, one of the most stunning things one can see in the garden world. Our pix from 2016 are here. But I think our pictures this year even better represent the place. And we saw not much more than half the place before our legs and senses gave out.
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| The Laburnum Arch, 55 meters of glory |
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| Generations old |
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Bodnant House, privately owned, not part of the tour (the National
Trust has many different kinds of deals with its benefactors) |
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Many varieties of trees, but a surprising number of
British magnolias |
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| The conservatory adjoined to the house |
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| Nearly everything in bloom |
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| Ha-ha |
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Quite a few of these unusual bark trees around...
an acer griseum, from China |
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| Ugly Tree, maxime deformis arbor |
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| Under the Ugly Tree, betula pendula |
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| Three huge beeches in a row |
2 comments:
Ok, what is a Ha Ha?
It's a sunken barrier or wall that permits the illusion of continuity in a landscape. Keeps the livestock off the lawn and out of the garden. Wikipedia's article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha explains it better than I can. Standard feature in your larger estate gardens, from the 18th century.
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