I have posted about Branklyn Gardens before in one of My SOS’s bit thought I would write a whole blog about these gardens today.

I visited these gardens today 16/5/2019 and as always was dumbfounded by just how beautiful these gardens are. Thankfully the weather gods were with me and today was sunny but not to warm. The garden is famed for it’s collection of plants especially it’s collection of Mecanopsis Rhododendrons and Cassiope (a new plant to me).

The gardens were developed in the 1920’s by George and Dorothy Reynolds. They built their Arts and Crafts based cottage and wanted to grow and shape a garden that was full of rare and exciting plants from around the wall. They turned to plant collectors George Forrest (who explored one of China’s most bio diverse regions in Yunnan and discovers many varieties of Rhododendrons) and Frank Ludlow (who explored and collected specimens in the likes of India and surrounding areas including Tibet).

The garden is built on a hillside on the Dundee Road in Perth and it has many paths running through it creating “super” borders. It has a specifically built Peat Garden, a vast low lying rock garden brooming with Alpine plants, a small stream running into a newly built pond and a large collection of trees and shrubs from around the world. Each tree or shrub always has lots of underplanting with herbaceous perennials and bulbs.

The garden is now run by the National Trust of Scotland under the stewardship of Jim Jeremyn a week renowned botanist who founded Edrom Nurseries in Berwickshire who I have featured in previous blogs and has written many books in Alpine Plants. Him and his vast no of volunteers do a great job on looking after the garden.

Below is a few photo’s I have take today with a brief description and names if I managed to get them.

Three of my favourite plants at Branklyn

A true block buster of a plant. The flowers can be over 25 cm’s across. The petals are white with a purple blonde at the base. This tree is near the entrance of the gardens.

Rhododendron Branklyn

That’s was the make on the label but I can’t find any info on google about it. Anyways at the top of the photo you can see the top of the Art and Crafts house.

This yellow leaf Acer stands out like a Hi Vis best In the garden and draws your gaze every time you can see it. Sometimes known as the Full/half moon maple it is of course from Japan. It has small upright crimson flowers during the summer. It grows to a height of 4 – 8m and I would love one in my garden but it would take up the whole garden.

Rhododendrons

Below is a few pictures of Rhododendrons in bloom. I may in the future wrote a blog entirely about Branklyns Rhododendrons.

Meconopsis

The gods were smiling on me today. With the sun shining high in the sky I managed to get some fantastic photo’s. The sheer no of Meconopsis plants they have is fantastic and around every corner there seemed to be a breathtaking picture opportunity.

That is it for the moment. No doubt there will be other blogs about Branklyn to follow. I am going to go back there later on in the year when the Acers, Ginkgo and Katsura trees are on the turn and showing the autumn colours.

If you are ever in Scotland you really must make Branklyn Gardens top of your list to visit. Admission and opening times can be found here Branklyn Gardens .

Thanks for reading.