Open Gardens

 Yes, dear readers, more garden photos.  However, these are not from my garden but from various gardens I saw yesterday on an extremely wet Open Gardens day at my Mum's village.  I did get absolutely soaked, but it was worth it.  Looking round gardens is always interesting to me as I enjoy seeing how other people use plants.  The garden above was beautifully cared for, with not a weed in sight.  The owner told me that they had lost a lot of plants over the winter so had been re-planting through this season so far.  I liked all the trees the owner had planted - birches are so elegant and don't cast too much shade.

 This combination of orange red hot pokers and deep blue delphiniums managed to sing out despite the downpour.

I don't know the name of the tree in the photo above, but I was immediately attracted to the rosettes of needles and the brilliance of the colour.

Geranium Magnificum appeared in most of the gardens and was flowering happily under this tree.

This raised bed using railway sleepers gave a splash of bright colour to this garden, again, beautifully cared for.

A lovely herbaceous bed, with roses, aquilegia, cosmos, nepeta, hemerocallis and a ceanothus - very English Country Garden planting.

The owners of this garden had given it a taste of Japan and had trained this conifer's branches to hang down like a lovely living curtain, giving glimpses of the planting behind.
Having visited all the gardens, we then enjoyed a well-earned cup of tea and piece of cake at the church.  If it had been a sunny day, the village would have been heaving with visitors, but as it was, we did see a few other brave souls venturing out which was encouraging.  The gardens were open to raise funds for the church, so however much money was raised, it was for a very good cause.
The only problem with looking at other gardens is that once home, all the problems in your own garden become very obvious.  I am lucky that I have lots of lovely plants, and also lucky that I don't have the pressure of opening my garden for charity!