RHS at Wisley Gardens

My mother was a keen gardener and I suppose I picked up my interest from her.  I just wish I could remember the latin names for plants at the times when I need to!

So, yesterday, Giles and I paid a visit to the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens at Wisley, which is not too far from here.  The gardens were lovely, the weather not so lovely...



...though the rain held off most of the time (well, once we decided to carry our umbrellas around everywhere, at least!).  The sun shone from time to time and there were oceans of beautiful flowers and trees to see. This plant was very fragrant as well as being particularly pretty...



...I think it's called Actea.

The roses, too were in full bloom and are a particular favourite of mine...





We saw probably about half of the garden, so will be going back again another time.

Of course we bought some plants, including some green and white striped tulips, some prepared hyacinths for me and a Cardoon (Cynara) for Fi, who had particularly admired the adult plant on a recent visit to Coolings Garden Centre in Kent.

As I am still in a flowery kind of mood, I am currently making a Flower Basket Tea Cosy, like the ones I made a few months ago...





The pattern is from an old Patons Bazaar book, but I have used DK doubled and size 5.50mm needles as the original is rather thin and flat!  You can buy a Tea Cosy collection booklet with the pattern in here, and the picture of the cosy is available as a poster, here!