At the beginning of July we bought a season ticket for Parham Garden we only have one more visit and it’s paid for itself, then we can continue to visit for free!
We went again yesterday and having written several blog posts about Parham I decided to go with a specific theme for this post.
Initially I was going to photograph unusual plants or plants that we may not use in a smaller garden due to their size. The one above is an Eupatorium which can grow to almost 7ft, far too big and overpowering for my small garden.
However, after walking into the glasshouse full to bursting with Pelargoniums, Plectranthus, Begonias and Heliotrope, a virtual bee heaven, I decided to concentrate on this part of the garden. The temperature inside here was comfortable, and not that sticky humid heat you often meet in a greenhouse. I did look up if there was any difference between a greenhouse and a glasshouse and apparently the only difference is in the name.
There was an interesting scent wafting about which, like a bloodhound, made me sniff around to locate where it was coming from. I honed in eventually to the flower above. We hunted under the leaves to see if there was a label but with no luck. Maybe you can name it.
This interesting, unusual plant is Brilliantasia Owariensis. We continued in our dig around for the hope that some plants were labelled and luckily this one was. I Googled it for a bit more information and was puzzled when searching using the full name only Spanish pages came up, but when changing the search criteria, dropping the Owariensis part, lots of information on Brilliantasia Subulugurica, a plant from Zimbabwe, came up. It certainly was different.
Another pretty bluish/purple flower is Tibouchina urvilleana from Brazil. This was the only glasshouse plant we could find for sale in the plant nursery. That is how we know what it was called.
There are many fascinating fuchsias, one in particular is the above Fuchsia Boliviana ‘Alba’ from Peru.
This bright red flower is Begonia Fuchsioides it was such a bright red that the camera on my iPhone, usually great for photos, only managed to produce a slightly blurred pic.
As I leave the glasshouse, this is a photograph from the other end, with a very pretty salmon pink fuchsia in the foreground.
I couldn’t resist the temptation to continuing taking photographs after we left the glasshouse. Rather than stray away from the sole purpose of blogging about the glasshouse, I am ending with just one pic of the garden. The array of sunflowers was a sight to behold, from little bright yellow ones to the tallest bronze flowers you could hope to see.
OPENING TIMES
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays and Bank Holidays until the end of September. In October Parham is open on Sundays only.
House | 14:00 – 17:00
Gardens | 12:00 – 17:00
Big Kitchen Restaurant | 12:00 – 17:00
Last Admission | 16:30
Parham Plant & Garden Shop is open to visitors free of charge from 10:30am – 12noon on standard open days (excluding event days) and from 12noon to 5pm for paying Garden visitors.
The next event at Parham is the HARVEST FAIR on 24th and 25th September from 10:30 to 17:00
Live cookery demonstrations, deer walks, gun dog displays, fungi talks, working horse cart rides in the Parkland, falconry displays, Tudor cooking demonstrations and Tudor dancing in the House. Wide array of stalls selling food, drink and country wares.
