May I Offer you a Handkerchief?

When we visited Stourhead, an 18th landscape garden during our garden tour last week, the Davidia involucrata trees were in bloom. Davidia involucrata is also known as the handkerchief or dove tree because of the large white blowsy flowers, was brought to England from China in 1900 by the plant hunter E. H. Wilson. I suspect that the seed that he collected was also sent to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston where I have seen a magnificent specimen. 

On the right side of the picture, with the Temple of Apollo in the distance, is a Davidia involucrata  tree in full flower.

A closer view of the same Davidia involucrata tree

My favorite memory of this tree was when I visited Sakonnet Garden in Rhode Island about a dozen  years ago. The Davidia involucrata tree was in bloom and I pressed one of the papery flowers in my gardening journal. It is a wonder reminder of a beautiful garden and an unusually lovely tree.

The Best of English Gardens 2013

In less than a month, I will be returning to Britain to assist my friend, Mick Induni, on a tour of English gardens May 14-23. We will be visiting Great Dixter, Hidcote, Sissinghurst, Stourhead and Wilsey. We end the tour with the Chelsea Flower Show in London. I think of myself as the "color commentator" to compliment the exceptional British tour guides who will be leading the tours. My mission will be to give an American perspective on how to incorporate ideas from the English gardening tradition into the participants' own gardens back in the states. 

On one of our open nights in London, I have gotten tickets for the Gardens Illustarted lecture at the Royal Geographical Society. Peit Oudolf and Jinny Blom will be the speakers. I did this lecture a couple of years ago when Dan Pearson and Cleve West spoke and it was great. I am very excited to see Oudolf speak for the first time!

You can see the complete itinerary at Mick's website at The Best of English Gardens. He has a wide range of tours. For more information, see his website, Discover Europe.

The azaleas and rhododendrons should be at peak while we are visiting

 The White Garden, one of the many garden rooms, at Hidcote Manor

The modern pool at Kiftsgate Court Gardens

 The Grotto at Mill Dene, the private garden of The English Garden’s contributor Wendy Dare

The Palladian Bridge and Pantheon, at Stourhead

Rosemary Verey’s iconic Laburnum Walk at Barnsley House

Sissinghurst, the garden of poet/novelist Vita Sackville-West and her husband, historian Harold Nicolson

Great Dixter, the home and garden of the late plantsman, Christopher Lloyd

The Brewin Dolphin Garden, designed by Cleve West, won best in show last year at the Chelsea Flower Show

Tom Hoblyn received the RHS People’s Choice Award in 2012

Lovely Stourhead

An Iconic View at Stourhead: The Palladian Bridge and the Pantheon Accross the Lake

The Temple of Apollo

The River God’s Cave Seen from the Grotto.

An Ancient Liriodendron tulipifera, the 'Tulip Tree", an American Tree that Grows in my Native Pennsylvania

Crinodendron hookerianum aka the Chilean Lantern Bush

Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana known as the Handkerchief Tree. Note the "handkerchiefs" Scattered Beneath the Tree.

Yesterday we visited Stourhead, the 18th century landscape garden with a series of classic temples, mystic grottos and rare exotic trees on a path the takes the visitor around a beautiful shimmering lake. The gardens were designed and laid out between 1741 and 1780 and inspired by painters, in particular Gaspar Dughet, who painted idealized views of Italian landscapes.

Many of the trees are Champion Trees and are the largest or best examples of a particular species in Great Britain. A tree that was new to me was the Crinodendron hookerianum or Chilean Lantern Bush. It is an evergreen tree with unusual red flowers that look like little lanterns on fire. We also saw two very nice specimens of Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana or the Handkerchief Tree. They were magnificent in bloom with their characteristic large white pendant bracts that look handkerchiefs. These trees were first introduced to Stourhead in 1935.

Stourhead is world famous as landscape garden and rightly so. Not surprisingly, it is many ancient trees that have long been grown in Great Britain. I had forgotten, since my last visit, what a excellent resource it is for anyone interested in seeing magnificent specimens of rare and exotic trees hardy in England.