We're visiting friends and family in Hampshire again soon, which reminded me that I never shared the pictures from January 2018's visit to the gardens at Mottisfont Abbey.
Although best known for its rose gardens, Mottisfont also has a truly glorious winter garden and naturalised snowdrops growing through the woods and meadows beside the river Test.
There are formal areas too, with pleached and pollarded trees, whose structure shows up particularly well once their leaves have fallen. With the branches bare, there are also views of the house and grounds that would usually be hidden.
Even the famous rose garden retained a quiet beauty, with its neat lavender-edged beds and evergreen hedges, enhanced by the long shadows of winter days.
The highlight was definitely the winter garden itself, full of surprisingly vibrant colour from witch-hazel (Hamamellis) and dogwood (Cornus) and the vivid pink-purple shades of
Cyclamen coum, a delightfully delicate little bloom which looks amazing in large drifts.
Mottisfont's winter garden wanders up and down a sloping site, combining its flowering and foliage plants really beautifully. We were lucky enough to visit on a cool but sunny day when the colours showed at their very best.
Many other National Trust properties are also developing winter gardens. While there's no doubt it extends the period of interest for visitors to the property and probably has commercial advantages, it also means that there are valuable late and early flowering plants available to help insects.
They are also a source of inspiration for any of us looking to keep our own gardens attractive and bug-friendly throughout the year.
