Our morning visit was to Mill House, Bassingbourn. 

Retired garden designers, Mr & Mrs A Jackson, have developed the garden over many years, dividing it into interesting enclosures.  These provide formal and informal settings for rare trees, shrubs and herbaceaous plants, clematis and topiary, set in beautiful countryside.  Stunning, colourful dahlias were in abundance.

At lunchtime we stopped at Hopleys Nursery and Gardens in Much Hadham.

A small family owned business established in 1968, growing choice garden plants.  They have a reputation for raising good, new plants.  The 5 acre garden contained many mature trees, including a large ash tree reputed to be the fourth largest in England. 

Visit their website www.hopleys.co.uk for more information and to buy plants.

In the afternoon we travelled a short distance to Bromley Hall, near Bishops Stortford.

This garden, developed since 1963 by Julian and Edwina Robarts, covers 4.5 acres around a 16C farmhouse.  Julian is in charge of the kitchen garden and Edwina the flower borders.  There is a partly walled garden providing much-needed shelter, many trees planted by the owners and a number of interersting plantings, including an area of eucalyptus and silver birch for the bark in winter.  A recent acquisition was a Wollemi pine.  We were told the orchard is underplanted with camassias.  There are a number of groups of containers.  Fuchsias, agapanthus and dahlias were in abundance for us to see, some as seasonal plantings and others, as part of the all-year round border,  near the entrance.

all photographs by Linda Hall