There have been complaints. There have been mutterings that John’s comments are longer than my posts.
Be careful what you wish for.
Yesterday I cranked up the new charabanc and chauffeured a select few to RHS Rosemoor. It couldn’t have been a better day. A glorious morning, sunglasses on, unruly passengers sedated with liquorice and blackcurrant sweeties, hyper-drive engaged and off we headed down the frost edged roads of Devon. Soon, with little if any screaming, we safely landed and those of us who had remembered our membership cards entered with little drama.
After obligatory reviving coffee, we headed out into the sunlit garden, trying hard not to squeal in anticipation (that might have just been me). And what a treat we had.
We had cleverly (fluke-ily) coincided our visit with a sculpture exhibition. So our horticultural journey was interspersed by octopuses, birds of prey and dinosaurs.
But it wasn’t all metal, plastic and carved wood, as wonderful as it was. There was plenty more to see.
Around every corner a parrotia was in full flower, hellebores were getting into their stride and the snowdrops were not waiting for the appointed Snowdrop Day. Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ filled the air with syrup. A cultivar new to me, Daphne bholua ‘Garden House Enchantress’, was equally as fragrant, also being enjoyed by an early rising honey bee. The sarcococca and witch hazels were in full flourish, my favourite being the dusky Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Diane’.
And we watched staff lay out the new Devon heritage orchard as the sun thawed the icy ground.
Then I spotted a shrub at the back of a border, a mystery, one I didn’t recognise, the label hidden by vegetation. I really needed to know what this was. Really, really, really. Being the evil temptress that I am, I encouraged (mainly by pinching) one of our innocent party to investigate. Just as he was returning hot foot from his illicit foray a faithful RHS employee appeared. To this day I can only imagine she teleported in as I was on full security alert. We even had a warning sound (“hoot, hoot” since you ask). But there she was, suddenly scolding. Of course she was quite right, you shouldn’t walk on the borders, for all sort of reasons. I confessed that it had been all my doing and I had persuaded the Perp to do the devilish deed. I am not convince this helped. As it is, I can’t remember the name that he shouted out to me. My head is yet again hung in shame.
Soon after we spotted this flowering cherry, two pink flowers, standing proud and rebellious amongst the white. Surely we need a rebel, every once in a while. Or perhaps more often.
I can’t tell you the exact name of this tree as I couldn’t read the label properly. Strangely there were no volunteers to venture forth and uncover it.
Off The Edge Gardening 
Nice!
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Perfect!
I have no complaints about length of posts nor comments.
Enchantress by name and nature – she’s beautiful. Hope you bought one!
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There weren’t any for sale! One of my bug bears about RHS plant sales, certainly at Rosemoor. And thanks!
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🙂
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Oooo – you’re so naughty. Still at least you owned up – not like my mum who hid behind a bush when she heard someone coming, leaving me to hold an incriminating spade and bag of stolen saplings……
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Why I am not surprised that you are even naughtier?!
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Oh, I wish I could have been teleported in instead! With membership card in hand!
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So do I, we have to get that teleporter up and running!
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I felt I was there with you. Perhaps when I visit a friend who lives not far from Rosemore we can meet there.
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That would be wonderful! Just shout and if I can I will be there.
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Perfect
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Perhaps if you had started climbing the tree someone would have been beamed down to chastise you? Wish I had been there to witness the deed and enjoy Rosemoor in all its wintry glory. I felt transported by your post though. Funny we should end up including at least two of the same plants in our posts yesterday …. I wasn’t copying, promise 😉
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I wish you had been there too! Sometime this year perhaps? As for the same plants – great minds …. 🙂
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We’re in Port Isaac week before Easter. Is there somewhere lovely half way between we could go and visit?
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Yes, sound like a good plan, I will have a think.
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Oh I do wish I could have joined you. I wonder if your mystery tree is Prunus mume omoi- no- mama ? I saw one at Cambridge Botanical garden last year and felt my life was incomplete without one of my own. I’ m still looking.
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I think you are right, the label was dirty and it was hard to distinguish all the letters. It is great having clever friends! 😊
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Thank you for the compliment, but I think ‘nerdy’ is the word you are looking for.
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Nowt wrong with nerdy!
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Look no more! Ornamental Trees list them as available. I think Gill’s got a “no web links” setting somewhere as I can’t post a link to their web site but hopefully you can make sense of www(dot)ornamental(dash)trees(dot)co(dot)uk/prunus-mume-omoi-no-mama-tree-pp505
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Thanks John. I will see if I can find the setting and untick the box. 😊
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I find it infuriating when labels are missing or hidden, ‘that’s nice’ just doesn’t cut it. Of course folk want to know what they are looking at and some kind of key or plan on a board of the borders would help. When you next get reprimanded this may be a first line of defence!
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Thanks I will try that! And why is it always the one plant you want to know that you can’t find the label for? Must be one of those laws!
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They must have picked up tips from Prince Charles. At Highgrove there are cameras so if a foolish member of a tour party gets within an inch of their mobile phone to capture a beautiful border for posterity one of the security people leaps forthwith out of the bushes.
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Eeeek! That sounds very scary. 😕
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A most enjoyable post and lovely pictures. xx
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Thanks 😀x
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Rosemoor on a sunny day – perfect, and we all do our best to see what a particular plant is, it’s just compulsory.
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A lovely and interesting post Gill.
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Thanks Kayti x
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We were there yesterday and were lucky enough to have had a sunny day like you and your motley crew and coincidentally on Tuesday I was planting the Daphne ‘Garden House Enchantress’ at Marwood, I also planted ‘Garden House Ghost’ which I think I prefer. Speak to Malcolm, he has a friend! We were also very taken with the cherry, so Steve took a photo of the label so that we could take a closer look once we got home (goody two shoes or what) it is indeed prunus mume omoi- no- mama.
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You are such a swot! What does the ghost look like? The enchantress certainly lived up to her name.
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White as you might expect, and it’s still only a small plant so I don’t know how it will look later, but I do prefer it’s perfume.
On a different subject entirely, I need you to explain the ‘like; star to me please, if I press on like for other contributors comments I get a wordpress.com login box come up, but I don’t have an account can you explain please?
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No
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Seriously, I don’t know, can anyone else help please?
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I’m replying to your question about “Likes”. This is a WordPress feature which requires a WordPress account. It’s usually a way for bloggers to indulge in a bout of mutual ego-boosting. But you don’t need to be a blogger to get a WordPress account (just like I don’t use Blogger to blog but have a Blogger account so I an interact with Blogger blogs). Just head to https://wordpress.com/start/account/user to create an account. Then you can log into that and Like away.
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Cheers John!
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Oh! Thank you, I’ll give it a go 🙂
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