May! Glorious month, the garden is all dressed for a wedding, the grass is strewn with papery petal fall...and the wind bites and I perpetually wish I had a coat.
I had the pleasure of visiting
Pashley Manor this week, the annual Tulip Festival is in full swing. What a pageant it is. I am not sure that I "like" order, military rows, tulips on the parade ground but there's no denying it is a spectacle. As I look at the perfectly spaced planting and the harmonised colours I am strangely reminded of a military Tattoo. I fancy I can hear the cymbals clash as the band marches in perfect unison.
Let's begin in the
Bloms marquee. Trestles set with glass vases filled with specimen tulips, arranged by colour.
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I like tulips with teeth! spiked edges, articulated cabbagey petals, parrots in other words!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4yHqka4YT90aergK_N9Mo0RxTso5-bgyVc8YcsVjnw-Yh8Zht16WlKFWdVVmP7pRaKj0KpcXk_XQgWpT8adFqaYY0hTdSv0s7R4AXnpHChSxYVV7pFJzqBZmyDv6I9zBjzLSzS1USIF8/s1600/La+Belle+Epoque+2.jpg)
But not exclusively, I have a real crush on this ravishing tulip, dusky terracotta with hints of pinky lilac, as seen in the Long Toms at Perch Hill.La Belle Epoque.
Outside in the garden I am drawn less by the amazing massed beds and more to the urns, I like the idea that a garden urn is a giant vase of flowers.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg7ZNyL_1f-CGAmbyxiCRvKN8y1B-3jVWclCZNzUkj-7t0JgXpEzmoUg4Rk-D4n6jHlvoUyahh6ebVHXiufjFY782h0ugWfQQqNkd5znkE9tgxjtj8lk4g2QX-ex86dTDR1kTMj45cFLc/s1600/thistle.jpg)
Love this greenhouse! Bit more than a greenhouse in truth...a passionflower is clinging to a lattice of canes and there are lovely sculptures nestled betwixt scented geraniums and other tender specimen.
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The house is devastatingly handsome, all timber framed Medieval to the front and Georgian symmetry to the back, dripping in jewels, wisteria drops and clematis stars.
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There is a Corps de Ballet analogy to be made too...and if I was ever in doubt enter the black swan stage left...
Note to self: When visiting Tulip Tattoo/Ballet always wear another layer...the wind has teeth!
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PS. I rather fell in love with this wonderfully stoic lady taking tea in the arctic breeze and thought how brilliantly English! When I said hello I was reminded how foolish it is to assume, she was Dutch! Of course she was, we were in a tulip garden.