Minterne Gardens, Dorset

Tags

Azalea, blackbird, blue tit, bluebells, butterbur, campion, candelabra flower, Churchill, Digby family, handkerchief tree, Himalayan plants, John Churchill, Minterne Gardens, Minterne Magna, ransoms, rhododendron, wollemi pine

A friend told me about the Minterne Himalayan Gardens on Monday, and I visited the next day. This is an ideal time of year to go, because of the rhododendrons and the azaleas and other spring wild flowers, but the great collection of wonderful trees would justify a visit at any time of year. I took so many pictures that I cannot make a choice, so here for the record are lots and lots of them, with occasional commentary.

I had to stop a few miles before arriving at Minterne Magna, to take this view.

Minterne Church, opposite the car park.

The entrance to the gardens, no cars allowed

I was not yet ‘Here’, but where the ticket booth is indicated, and that wasn’t there but at the main house.

The house, home to the early Churchills and afterwards the Digbys, is not open to the general public. It was the first Digby owner who made the magnificent gardens in the early 19th century.

The lawn was not available to he public either, for perhaps understandable reasons.

The gardens were a wonderful mixture of Himalayan planting and British wild flowers

Eyes right

A handkerchief tree from a distance,

then in ever increasing…

detail. What photos cannot show is that every ‘handkerchief’ is waving in time with its neighbour.

At times the bird song was deafening, not all the responsibility of this blue tit.

Another handkerchief tree,

and this time I’m right underneath it, on a small bridge.

This bridge is foreshortened by the zoom.

I’m in fact nearer to it now.

And there was a convenient bench.

Blackbird in the butterbur

Ransoms and reflections

Wollemi ‘pine’. Until September 1994, this species was only know in the fossil record, then some specimens were found in Wollemi National Park, (the tree is named for the park, not vice versa) 150 km to the northwest of Sydney, Australia. The original site is kept undisclosed to the general public, but propagation makes samples available to botanical gardens.

Entertainment in the lake as I had coffee and cake.

I decided to call in on the little church instead of returning straight home.

15th century font, on a somewhat more recent base

The very first Sir Winston Churchill, his wife, and his daughter are buried here. On the left is the grave of John Churchill, the first Winston’s father.

I felt particularly for this woman, ‘languishing under a tediouse sickness for halfe a year’ before she died.

And there were a few other commemorative plaques which caught my eye, some of which told interesting stories.

A lovely afternoon under lovely weather.