Another visit to Mount Congreve
Following my post last month I made my promised return visit to Mount Congreve in Waterford this week. Would a second visit so soon be a disappointment or be just as wondrous? It is not always a good idea to go back. Although it has been over a month since I last went the weather has been cold and there were some severe frosts until two weeks ago. So I was hoping that a good number of rhododendrons would be looking good and there would not be too much frost damage.
Well, I needn’t have worried. Superb, lavish planting and a luxuriant carpet of bluebells ensured that every step of the way was extraordinary. This really is one of the great gardens of the world.
This is the first post:
https://thebikinggardener.com/2015/04/19/now-thats-what-i-call-a-garden/
So, to get on with it, here is a selection of photos.
The ‘Loderi’ rhododendrons are too big for most gardens but they are delicious. They have large flowers in shades of pink and white and smell gorgeous. This is ‘Venus’.
‘Venus’ showing habit and the captivating beauty of the whole plant
Rhododendron mollis with fragrant, small, yellow flowers mixed in with bluebells
In the walled garden there was masses of colour including this contrasting pair of double oriental poppies and Asphodeline lutea.
The walled garden was dripping with wisterias
Hummocks of cut leaf purple acers in front of pale lilac rhododendrons
The oddly named Rhododendron Loderi ‘Game Chick’
The pond at the base of the waterfall had wonderful reflections
Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’, the wedding cake tree was beautiful at the top of the waterfall
Not too subtle – a mass of deciduous rhododendrons
Bluebells are surely our most spectacular native flowers
The fragrant Rhododendron decorum subsp. diaprepes x R. griffithianum
An unnamed Japanese maple
An extraordinary horse chestnut: Aesculus hippocastanum ‘Hampton Court Gold’ with fragile-looking primrose yellow leaves with green streaks here and there
How big is your pieris? A metre high? These monsters are 5m and covered in flowers and fresh foliage
How many plants do you need to have a lovely garden? I think I would be happy to have just this one Japanese maple!
The Biking Gardener 
absolutely out of this world even made my head cold feel better
Aw – sorry to hear you are suffering. Is it hay fever? I hear the pollen is bad. Glad it cheered you up 🙂
i don’t normaly suffer with hay fever but think it is . loads of people have said they are too
yes steve has been suffering