Great Great Dixter Day Trip

I seem to have been particularly fortunate, in that on every garden I've visited this year, I've been blessed with beautiful weather *.

Last Sunday was just perfect. The air was cool and sweet as we arrived at around 11.30am, and was gradually being warmed by the early October sun. I'd not been to Great Dixter before, and I had been wanting to go for years. In-between writing (frankly ridiculous) blogs about biscuits, I thought I'd try and make it down there. It's a beautiful place, and very quirky with a garden divided up into various sections. The Old Rose Garden is quite startling with the exotic planting and bold, yet clever, use of colour.

I really enjoyed the dry, upper garden. There's something about the light at this time of year that really turns the dry teasel and grass heads into something magical.

Vanessa reclining lazily on a dark-leaved Dahlia.

I think I may have overdone the exotic stuff on this blog recently, so for balance I'm just posting a couple of very 'Sussexy' garden scenes.

There was a large shrub in the long border that I couldn't quite place. I decided it must be some sort of olive tree. Yesterday evening I was going through some of my Zimbabwe holiday photos and came across pictures of something that looked very much like it. After a little research, it appears to be Olea capensis. It would be very interesting to get to the bottom of this mystery, as I for one would be interested to know of an other plants native to Muturoshanga that could grow in East Sussex!

* Although it's been nice when visiting other gardens this year, it was pouring when Victoria came to visit. I just wanted to add here that her Blotanical Award is really well deserved. Victoria has been through some difficult times, and has been a real inspiration to the blogging community. Congratulations!

I'd also like to congratulate Meems at Hoe and Shovel, who won the Best Florida Blog. This is probably my favourite of the non-UK blogs, and enjoy following her gardens progress.