Wood Wandering

The other day I went to a plant fair at Evenley Wood in Northamptonshire, it is about an hour's drive so not too bad to get to.  To be honest, whilst I enjoy a good plant fair, that was really just an excuse as I had wanted to visit for a while now.
The plant fair was good, I bought a Daphne mezereum, which I had been after for quite a while.  I had one at my previous home and whilst I found they could  be a bit tricky to settle in, once happy they are a great shrub.  I also bought an Asarum eurpaeum, which I was not actively seeking but it jumped into the bag and demanded to be taken home, honest.
After the purchasing was complete and the plants stored in the car, it was time to wander around the wood.  There was a choice of walks, a 30 minute or an hour or so, we chose 30 minutes (no need to overdo things).
It was a very enjoyable walk, the Magnolias were huge and wonderful.  It is always good to see a Magnolia freed from the constraints of the front garden and reaching for the sky.  There was also some good underplanting, I particularly liked these hyacinths, which might not have had the most attractive label in the world, but at least I know which ones they are.  I cannot abide hyacinths in the house, I find the smell overwhelming, but outside I find them rather wonderful and the scent is dispersed enough to make it attractive.
There were some rather good camellias too, this one I particularly liked, Camellia transnokoensis, it is of course now on the list.
There were a lot of streams running through the wood, love how this one is lined by marsh marigolds.
We found the naughty corner, where plants who have transgressed in some way are imprisoned and shown as an example to other plants lest they fall off the path of righteousness.
Or of course they might just have a bad rabbit/deer (insert name of plant destroying mammal) problem.
There were also some clumps of trilliums, I love trilliums and they were setting some at the plant fair, but I decided that for me it was quicker to just bury £10 in the ground as it would grow just as well.  I have never managed to provide them with what they need  to make them thrive.
There were swathes of these Narcissus cyclamineus.  These are beautiful small narcissus that spread by seed.  These are also on the list.
But probably what was most breathtaking of all was this stream of blue Scilla siberica, well I think that is what they were anyway.  Everyone who walked up to them stopped and gasped, they were just amazing.  Yes, a stream of thousands of blue scilla is also on the list (what do you mean I haven't the space?).
There was the obligatory stop for tea and cake following our walk.  This is a very important part of this sort of day as important discussions have to take place.  Not only discussing the quality and choice of cake, but also discussing what we have seen, what we liked, what we thought was the best thing to do about growing trilliums because whilst pithily I might say bury the money in the ground, I do want to grow them.  I also do not want to waste money, so the decision was made, there was one way I could try again to grow them but not at huge expense - seed.  Oh yes, seed will be sought.
Let us be clear, tea is a vital part of gardening, it fuels the thought processes.  When stopping for a tea break when weeding this will be the moment that a solution to a problem becomes apparent, it is the time when you suddenly know that you do have to move that plant from over there to over here.  Tea fuels it all.  The combination of this wander around a rather good wood plus tea meant various ideas were created and stored, it was a good day for inspiration.