"A Picture Paints a Thousand Words"

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Or in this case "A Picture Paints Ten Thousand Tulips".

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Yesterday was my third trip up to Cliveden in as many weeks. It was reported that the gardeners had planted ten thousand tulip bulbs this year in the Long Garden.

The cold weather had delayed the flowering but this visit proved "Third Time Lucky".

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

And there they were!

"Ten thousand saw I at a glance."

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Actually, that was only half of them!

The Long Garden is really long. (None of the guide books actually give the length)

It is laid out all along the boundary wall on the south side of the estate. It is also relatively narrow. It must be ten times longer, than it is wide. In passing, I noticed that the shrubs along the south wall, included Californian Sweet Bay and a Californian gooseberry with scarlet, fuchia-like flowers which was labelled 'Ribes speciosum'.

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It was not possible therefore to photograph the whole garden with the ten thousand, so I stood in the centre and took photos east and west.

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From the east looking to the centre.

And from the centre, looking west.

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The garden comprises four beds, so each was planted with 2,500 bulbs.

What a back breaking exercise!

A wide mown walk down the centre, bordered with box hedges and topiary heads to a central space with four 18th century stone figures.

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The Long Garden was laid out by the 1st Viscount Astor. His inspiration was clearly the Renaissance and 17th century gardens he had known during his years as US Minister in Italy, with their statuary and formal evergreens.

The original beds were planted with herbaceous plants under the guidance of Norah Lindsay, who was also responsible for all the lavish floral displays at Lady Astor's house parties.

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I felt a bit cheated, as I could only count 9, 996 flowers!

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