Trengwainton Garden

Wednesday, 18th March 2015 (Day three, week 11)

Hello

It’s a lovely Spring day here with blue skies and a warm sun.

We took a trip to Trengwainton Garden in Penzance, a National Trust garden with 25 acres of walks and Spring flowers. It was splendid!

We have Mr RR to thank for the photos today!

Enjoy

Rickety

Target: 1000 miles in one year (20 miles in a week)

Achieved so far: 232.2 miles (target 220 miles)

Achieved this week: 8.5 miles

Trengwainton Garden, Penzance (3.4 miles)

This is always the best time of year to visit Trengwainton. The magnolias, camellias and rhododendrons are at their best, the daffodils and primroses are in flower and mingle with the last of the snowdrops. And then the rest of the planting, magnificent tree specimens, tree ferns, hydrangeas and a host of other flora is just waking up and producing new shoots and buds.

20150318_123223 — Buds on Magnolia Tree, Trengwainton Garden

As well at all of that, there’s a lovely cafe, serving delicious cream teas which you can eat in the garden if it’s warm enough – and today that’s where we started.

Sitting in the pretty walled garden, with our cream tea for elevenses (can you have cream tea for elevenses?), the birds singing in the trees and the daffodils in flower, is idyllic. Just over the laurel hedge there’s a little shed specially adapted to allow honey bees to buzz in and out and above the wall we can see the magnificent magnolia and rhododendrons in flower.

After a cream tea one is duty bound to neutralise the calories with a bit of exercise, so we head up the main drive towards the Terrace where, we have been told, a new part of the garden is now open to visitors.

Main Drive, Trenwainton Garden — Main Drive, Trengwainton Garden

The planting alongside the little stream which runs to the side of the drive is lush and green and the stream itself is quite lively as it tumbles down over the rocks.

At the top of the drive we pass the old mill stone and then turn left past the pond and onto the lawn of the estate house. Peahens are scampering around and we stop at the site of a fallen beech tree, still lying across the lawn of the estate house, waiting to be sawn up and removed. This 200 year old tree fell with no warning, its demise apparently due to a fungus which had devoured its roots.

Up onto the Terrace with its freshly painted Summer houses and stunning views across St Micheal’s Bay, and a right turn leads us to the newly opened magnolia garden. It’s obviously still a work in progress, as much of the ground has been cleared, but apart from a few established magnolias, much of the planting is new and yet to flower.

A short diversion takes us to the Dig for Victory garden, maintained by volunteers and designed to resemble a world war two allotment with vegetables, an apple orchard and a hen run. We pass a group being shown round by one of the gardeners as we move on to the walled gardens, via the Royal Meadow, full of daffodils and surrounded by more of those rhododendrons and camellias.

The walled gardens shelter plants from around the world and lead to the walled kitchen gardens, built by Sir Rose Price to the dimensions of Noah’s Ark. It contains vegetable beds, a pond, fruit trees and allotment space which is used by local schools. Not much growing here yet for us to see so we don’t linger, but take the secondary path back up the hill towards the Terrace admiring the planting on the way before taking a short cut back onto the main drive and home.