A visit to a Brittany Garden...

It's been a busy old time of late, not allowing for much time to write my blog... I'm hoping I may have some pictures for a new posting shortly as the other evening whilst out walking Lucy I managed to spot a very young family of water voles having a wonderful time in the water - doing sommersaults in the water and munching away on the reeds... saw one today and had hoped to get back with my camera but just didn't have time - so watch this space! It was very exciting anyway!

Getting back to the subject of my post... we met up with some friends this weekend at the Parc Floral de Haute Bretagne near to Fougeres as it's been on my list of gardens to visit since we got here and at last we managed to find a slot in the diary!

We took a picnic with us which was great - a covered picnic area is provided in an old barn just outside of the garden itself or you can pick your spot on the grass - wonderfully peaceful!











The garden was really interesting - with plenty of work in progress too. It has been created around the Chateau Foltiere where you can even stay in a room fit for royalty and have the place to yourselves in the evening when it is closed to the public!

There were some beautifully areas of planting which looked fabulous - carefully designed and planted with some beautiful Cornus contraversa variegata (Variegated Dogwood trees) to add to the spectacular - they have a wonderful collection of Hemoracalis (Day Lilies) and Alstromeria which really caught my eye as well as some beautiful Japanese Acers which are very much suited to the sheltered nature of the garden.

































Another favorite bit was the Blue Lagoon - an area to the front of the Chateau, which has all been planted in shades of blue and mauve around a large pond.

Finally the area which we nearly missed was the beautiful walled garden complete with it's decorative potager and espaliered fruit trees as well as a colourful collection of herbaceous perennials and roses.



















There were areas of the garden which were slightly disappointing but the areas described above really made up this - a garden in my opinion that is well worth visiting and one of the few places that serves up a decent cuppa - they have a range of hot and cold drinks, ice creams and cakes - open every afternoon - sit out on the terrace in warm weather or they have a room inside the chateau for wet occasions.


Don't miss the nursery afterwards - the variety of plants is great.... :-)