Gardens at Ormeley Lodge (June 2015)

The gardens at Ormeley Lodge are not open very often, only once or twice a year, and it is always a special day thanks to the range of beautiful things on display. The large gardens are divided into several good-sized zones so it is like visiting several gardens at the same time.

My favourite part is the wild flower garden in the orchard which is the section furthest away from the house. There are several paths through and around it and I walked all of them several times.

The garden next to the house is the most formal and is designed more for sitting in than walking through. I took the hint and sat and had a cup of tea while enjoying the way that this hedge had been allowed to grow around a stone planter capped with large flowers.

Returning to the wild orchard I renewed my acquaintance with the friendly rhinoceros. It has been living there all the years that I have been going to the gardens, and I suspect for a good few years more, and I still delight at the way that it stood patiently in the long grass waiting for a naughty child to play with.

The many gardens at Ormeley Lodge are linked by many paths and these have seats planted in strategic locations to allow people to rest and savour another aspect of the garden. One of the grander seats lies under a spider's web of a pergola which is definitely worth spending some time under.

The rhinoceros may be my favourite animal in the garden (there are also lots of lions, dogs and birds) but the gorilla is special too. It lives far away from its African colleague in the front-right corner of the garden hidden from the formal lawn and borders by a tall hedge.

This was just a few highlights from an excellent garden. I've just checked the times on the photos and there is just over an hour between the first and last ones shown here which gives a good idea of just how much there was to see. And I hope to see it all again, plus a few new things, when the gardens open again next year.