Jo's News&Views No 5 May 2026

Jul 10
2 min read

Hello Everyone

Well, I really am running out of ways to describe the weather! Ridiculous for May springs to mind. The temperatures have been the hottest on record in May. I can't imagine the problems this is causing farmers and I am waiting for a hosepipe ban to come into force very soon.

So it gives me great pleasure to say the garden continues to delight. Leaving the car park, I saw these Daisies, which I think are Ox-eye daisies, Leucanthemum vulgare, peeking through the grass growing beside them, photo 1. Nature certainly has a way of being very artistic when left to its own devices.

I was a little early featuring the Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' last month as it has continued to go from strength to strength with an abundance of flowers covering the branches. There is one on the walkway heading towards Mr Bowles's former billiard room and museum building at the back of Myddelton House, photo 2, and one on the front of the house, photo 3. The small flowers make up in numbers what they lack in size, photo 4. The Front Lawn looked fabulous at the beginning of the month with the Rhododendrons flowering along the edge of the lawn, photo 5.

In one of the beds outside the Old Conservatory, I saw this huge clump of Phlomis russeliana, photo 6. The flowers always intrigue me because of the way the stem comes through the centre of the flower, photo 7. Also, here was this stunning peony, photo 8. The outside petal was a very pale pink, photo 9.

In the Rock Garden, the Camassia has now taken over the banks there, photo 10. The flowers are of many different colours, ranging from white to pale blue, dark blue, pale lilac to dark purple, photo 11.

Now the tulips are over the Irises have come into their own, photo 12. I do love the flowers of the Iris germanica and here are some of my favourites. Dusky Challenger, photo 13, Mystique, photo 14, White City, photo 15, I am sorry but I do not know the names of the irises in photos 16 and 17. I just think they are beautiful and worth including. The final one is a Siberian Iris, Iris 'Cambridge'.

Earlier in the month, in the Rose Garden, the Wisteria was in full flower, photo 19. The flowers looked pale pink from a distance, but up close, you could see all the different colours, photos 20 and 21.

Finally, in the Kitchen Garden in front of the Peach House, the Papaver rhoeas, the Field poppy or Corn Poppy, was filling the bed there, photo 22. Then, on the top of the wall nearby, there were poppies growing again, photo 23. How they manage without soil and water is beyond me but then Nature never ceases to amaze me.

I hope you have enjoyed this wander around the garden with me.

Best Wishes

Jo