Visiting Time ~ Wollerton Old Hall, Shropshire

The idea initially was to write a diary update post but a weeding marathon was what came to mind when I thought of what has happening in the garden recently. I'm sure that there have been other activities but I will reflect and come back to do a diary post sometime this week. Instead a few words and photos from a visit to one of my favourite gardens that we made a couple of weeks ago or so. I've visited Wollerton Old Hall several times over the years both in the company of himself and also with the local horticultural society that I belonged to for a good few years. 

Funnily enough my last visit to Wollerton was also in June. It was seven years ago and not the ten or so himself reckoned and it was also following a very long and cold spring. It was the beginning of June and there were still tulips in flower and daffodils at a nearby garden! This time there were the roses I had hoped to see last time. Roses were climbing up the exterior of buildings that greet you when you arrive and were also in evidence throughout the garden. The rose on the left of the photo below is 'Wollerton Old Hall" but I don't know what the pink rose is. I imagine that most of the roses are probably peaking now. 

You can read more about the garden here  but in a nutshell it's described as being set around a sixteenth century hall and is a formal, modern garden on an old site. 

It covers four acres and is composed of a number of garden rooms richly planted with perennials, shrubs and some beautiful trees. It is especially renowned for its plantings of roses, clematis and salvias. The garden has a small nursery attached to it where you can buy many of the plants grown in the gardens including rosa 'Wollerton Old Hall' bred by David Austin and of course named after the garden. I already have the rose but did make a couple of salvia purchases as well as a thalictrum 'Hewitt's Double' which I've grown in the past but it has long since disappeared. There is also a tearoom with both indoor and outdoor space where you can enjoy a light bite or  more usually in our case a cuppa and a slice of delicious cake.

We called there after a couple of nights away in the camper van in Shropshire and had a dull but dry day for our visit. All visits needed to be pre-booked at the moment but that was easily done online and the garden is open on a few days each week. 

It is a combination of the setting and also the exquisite planting that appeal to me as well as the fact that the garden is beautifully maintained. It was busier than our last visit but still quiet enough to find the odd nook and cranny completely to ourselves. I would return tomorrow if I could. That's unlikely but we do hope to get back there later this summer.

All the photos in this post were taken on my most recent visit but you can see photos from my previous post here. 

If you can't get to the garden yourself you may be interested to hear that Wollerton Old Hall is about to feature on the excellent series 'Great British Gardens With Carol Klein' on Channel 5 on Monday 7th July. In each hour long programme Carol visits one garden throughout the seasons. This will be episode 4 in the present series but you can still see the others on catch up. I'm now trying to work on himself for a trip to Coton Manor in Northamptonshire which looks out of this world. Hope that you are able to visit some beautiful gardens this year.