Tag Archives: coffee

Holehird Gardens

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We visited Holehird gardens a week ago, while on a short break in the Lake District. We walked from our bed and breakfast accommodation on the road south of Windermere, and fitted in an obligatory coffee stop in the town on the way. Homeground looked to be the place to go, but people were queuing up outside to get in, so we walked on and found a smaller place, called Toast a bit further on. It was very quiet, but a great find. You’d have to go a very long way to get a better coffee. And their brownies were pretty lush too.

From Windermere, we took the path up to Orrest Head, and then carried on down the other side and across country, and with a bit of trial and error managed to get to the gardens. Holehird is a ten acre fellside garden managed by the Lakeland Horticultural Society. It’s an RHS partner garden, so I could have got in free, but the entrance fee is only five pounds, so I decided to pay anyway (with a bit of encouragement from the lady on the desk). The gardens are run by volunteers, so it seems like a very good cause.

At the centre is a walled garden, with herbaceous borders, island beds, a glasshouse and and stone troughs for alpine plants. The tulip display was in full flush…

Holehird gardens have been laid out with a wide range of habitats, and support a fascinating and diverse range of plants. Aesthetically beautiful, they’re also a plantsperson’s dream. And the labelling is as good as I’ve seen in any garden.

The surrounding landscape – the fells – is dramatic, and forms a great backdrop for the gardens. It reminded me a little of gardens in Snowdonia – particularly Bodnant, and Plas Brondanw.

You can see from the photos that the weather was moody, but there wasn’t anything more than a few spits and spots of rain, which isn’t a bad day for the Lake District.

There isn’t a cafe at Holehird, which meant we had to do without lunch – we really should have been more organised and taken a picnic. They do have a machine for basic tea and coffee, so we were able to sit sipping a warm drink in the walled garden. After a couple of happy hours wandering around the gardens, we set off on the walk back to Windermere. In all, we’d walked quite a long way, so we were ready for a rest (and some food!).

text and photos © Graham Wright 2024

Gardens of Spain

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While on holiday in Andalucia a few weeks ago I took the opportunity to drop in on the botanic gardens at Malaga; the Jardin Botanico Historico La Concepcion.

The gardens are just north of Malaga, looking down on the city from a hill. The view of the old town is now mostly obscured by modern apartment blocks, and sadly, the gardens are immediately adjacent to the main A-45 highway. The traffic noise is a bit intrusive, but it fades into the background after a while. Hibiscus play a significant role, with many fine specimens, like the one above. Interesting that all of the many hibiscus plants there were in the yellow/red colour range. The hibiscus that we see in the UK – the varieties that will survive a British winter – tend to be in whites and blues; cold colours for a cold climate.

The Gazebo, or Mirador Historico (Historical viewpoint)
The Gazebo, or ‘Mirador Historico‘ (Historical viewpoint) on a hill looking down on Malaga.
Looking up to the forest route, which runs along a ridge at the western boundary of the gardens. I think of pines as being dark, rather gloomy trees, but on a peak, and in bright mediterranean light, these pines are equal to the ethereal beauty of eucalypts in an Australian landscape.

The gardens are primarily an arboretum; an impressive collection of trees from all over the world. I loved the section they’d called ‘La vuelta al mundo en 80 arboles‘ (around the world in 80 trees) at the start of which is this lovely stone and metal (bronze?) signage:

As you can see, the bottom section has suffered some damage, and the gardens, while generally well maintained, were in places in need of a little TLC. There are quite a few ponds and water courses, many of which could have done with being cleaned out more regularly. The leaflet shows a lot of water features – waterfalls and fountains, but not many of these were in operation. All that standing water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and they were voracious – I regretted wearing shorts, rather than long trousers, and got more bites on this last day than over the rest of the holiday. The middle section of the gardens are mostly tropical planting. You could almost be in a rainforest; it’s lush, but dark and damp (despite the 35 degree temperature and full sun). Lovely to experience, but unless you’re fully covered up, you really need to keep moving.

Just one of many beautiful trees in the collection, this Lagerstroemia indica (Crape Myrtle), as you can see, has wonderfully smooth, tactile, patterned bark.

The staff are doing a good job with the labelling, which is very helpful for students of horticulture (such as yours truly) and there’s plenty of information about the history of the gardens, and the collections. Visiting other countries can be a challenging experience when you don’t speak the language very well, but when you visit a garden, wherever you are in the world, the plants all have the same familiar Latin names.

An example of the information boards
A pond with giant water lilies (Victoria cruziana). The flowers apparently open at dusk. I’d left long before then – maybe next time!
Nice to see plumbago rampaging wild; clambering up into the trees. It needs a very sheltered position here in the UK to even survive – no chance of ever reaching this size. A shame that my camera didn’t seem able to capture the intense blue of the flowers.
There were some healthy and impressive cacti on show. These five characters caught my attention – maybe I’m as twisted as they are, but they seem to me to have a rather human quality.
A dragonfly, perched on the tip of an aloe leaf, shimmers in the sunlight.

And in case you were wondering, yes; the gardens have a very good cafe, which I took full advantage of – a tasty salad for lunch, two (damn fine) coffees and a brownie. All in all, it was a sad moment when the time came to leave. Though I didn’t miss those mossers…

Text and images ©Graham Wright 2019