Shropshire – DAVID OAKES

I mentioned in last weeks visit to Lea Rhododendron Gardens that there are several regular Gardens I try to visit each year when everything its bursting into colourful life. Dorothy Clive Gardens in Shropshire is one of those. Don’t ask, but this years visit was purely a twist of fate…. a day that wasn’t working out… but the final outcome worked out just fine.

Like Lea, Dorothy Clive features some spectacular Rhododendrons, again in woodland settings and a setting create by a Colonel Henry Clive under supervision of his wife Dorothy. The garden creation started in late Victorian times and I guess still continues to evolve today.

It is also the Laburnum season and the yellow glow of the Archway creates rich shadow….

Laburnum, Azalea and Rhododendrons are the stars of the moment. But Dorothy Clive’s garden also has more to tempt you as the summer herbaceous borders come into flower. Right now that growth has started but the real beauty has yet to come… still for late Spring, its still rather grand.