…..are from the seeds of today and yesterday

What a wonderful excuse to go to Wisley for the day. Wisley is the main centre of the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK. The gardens there are among the finest gardens in the world. It’s a great place for a day out and as a member of the RHS I get in free with a guest as often as I want. Why is it then that I go there only once every five years or so? Well, it’s for the usual reason. It’s only 20 miles from home and I pass it twice a day on my way to and from work. In other words I take it for granted completely.

Having a horticulturalist (Sally) to stay gives me the good excuse for a trip. Oh and how the gardens there are looking fabulous. I’ve come back with a card full of fantastic photos and a few ideas for my little patch of earth that’s so precious to me.

I love metal works in the garden and this sculpture with its profound inscription were just irresistible to me. I was just about to take the shot and this person just popped his head into my viewfinder and despite my remonstrations he wouldn’t get out of the shot so I took the pic anyway. As it turned out, I liked the image so much that it makes PotD yet when I took it I thought it would be discarded straight away.

We ambled around the gardens from lunchtime till they kicked us out at 6pm and saw a tiny fraction of the place, but we did see some of the best roses I’ve ever seen, a wonderful herb and vegetable garden, loads of water and bog plants that have given me ideas for my pond’s future development.

It’s quite interesting going to a place like Wisley with Americans. Lots of stuff that we take for granted here is completely amazing to them and equally some of my favourite things that I regard as exotic are every day for them. I commented on the globe thistles and Sally said ‘pah, two a penny’ Sally commented on the lavender and I said ‘lovely but ordinary’……it’s just amazing how our garden culture has similarities and differences with people who live 5000 miles away.

Sally works as a horticulturist working on community garden projects in Philadelphia – she was completely shocked when I’d not heard of the Philadelphia flower show. She tells me it’s the biggest in the world and DM and I have an open invitation to go to next year’s show with her. That’d be cool. Her projects sound so brilliant. She tells me that they are projects where the community can unite behind something positive rather than simply uniting against crime or racism or other BAD THING. That sounds to me like the best kind of motivator. Her enthusiasm and love for what she does just oozes out of her.

DM came along to photograph triffids in the glasshouses but we only found our way into them at 4.40pm and they closed at 4.45pm so I have to confess to getting him there under false pretences. David, I’ll do penance later, is that OK?

Tonight we treat our new American friends to that great tradition of Englishness, curry and Cobra!