By the time we left Garden Number 4, the storm was over and the sunshine had come back out again, although out of the sun is was quite nippily cold. Garden five was owned by a couple who first did up the old villa above, and then did some wonderful formal gardens. Each garden was in a separate area, and partitioned off with formal hedging...
The main formal garden was incredible - in four sections (above) with a different colour in each of the four sections - yellow, reds, whites and purlples.
I was impressed as you would have to have the patience of a saint to keep it all trimmed and nice. I did ask how long it took to get it tour ready, and they said they had only trimmed the hedges the weekend before.
Some of the purple flowers...
Here's a side view - you can see the poppies..
I was amazed with the size of the poppies - and wondered if these were the opium producing ones..
The Peonies were pretty amazing too...
Down a bit further was the garden sectioned off from the swimming pool and olive grove...
Carol took a photo of Nikki and I but she cut off our legs. Carol will NOT make Photographer of the year. Not in 2008 anyway!
Here's the other sectioned garden - to me the gardens were like rooms...
The pool looked great too... I loved the entrance way inviting you in...
The pool itself was very similar shape (with matching chair) to the other garden 'rooms'.
We had afternoon tea in this garden so spent some time sitting on the chair in the sun just enjoying it.
After we left the bus dropped us back into Blenheim and we met up with my sister Liz at a nice restaurant for a coffee/hot chocolate. Liz was up from Christchurch for the garden tours so it was good to catch up. On the way back to the car we found this...
We thought it was very apt for Blenheim because of all the vineyards around!! No one wants to waste good wine down here!
By the time we left Garden Number 4, the storm was over and the sunshine had come back out again, although out of the sun is was quite nippily cold. Garden five was owned by a couple who first did up the old villa above, and then did some wonderful formal gardens. Each garden was in a separate area, and partitioned off with formal hedging...
The main formal garden was incredible - in four sections (above) with a different colour in each of the four sections - yellow, reds, whites and purlples.
I was impressed as you would have to have the patience of a saint to keep it all trimmed and nice. I did ask how long it took to get it tour ready, and they said they had only trimmed the hedges the weekend before.
Some of the purple flowers...
Here's a side view - you can see the poppies..
I was amazed with the size of the poppies - and wondered if these were the opium producing ones..
The Peonies were pretty amazing too...
Down a bit further was the garden sectioned off from the swimming pool and olive grove...
Carol took a photo of Nikki and I but she cut off our legs. Carol will NOT make Photographer of the year. Not in 2008 anyway!
Here's the other sectioned garden - to me the gardens were like rooms...
The pool looked great too... I loved the entrance way inviting you in...
The pool itself was very similar shape (with matching chair) to the other garden 'rooms'.
We had afternoon tea in this garden so spent some time sitting on the chair in the sun just enjoying it.
After we left the bus dropped us back into Blenheim and we met up with my sister Liz at a nice restaurant for a coffee/hot chocolate. Liz was up from Christchurch for the garden tours so it was good to catch up. On the way back to the car we found this...
We thought it was very apt for Blenheim because of all the vineyards around!! No one wants to waste good wine down here!