52 Walks in 2010 - Walk 20 - Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens (8th August 2010)

Today's walk took us around Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, Dorset. Established in 1765 by the first Countess of Ilchester as a kitchen garden for her nearby castle the garden has since developed into a magnificent 20 acre garden filled with rare and exotic plants from all over the world.



The garden is a mixture of formal and informal flowers and is divided into different areas

Oriental style red bridges cross huge ponds.

A walk up a 250m steep grass slope took us to a view point from where we could see chisel beach.

Sited near to the gardens is the 14th century St Catherine's Hilltop Chapel and we got a glimpse of this through a specially cut hole in the trees.

This tree made us smile. It looks like a face.

Part of the garden was a Sculpture Trail featuring works by prominent British sculptors in a lovely woodland setting.

My post wouldn't be complete without some closeup shots of some of the wonderful plants.

I loved these beautiful waterlilies.

I think my favourite part of the garden was the Hydrangea Walk. There were so many hydrangeas in so many different colours and so I've put together a collage showing some of them. If you click on the photo you will (as usual) get a larger view.

Here's a few of the insects we spotted too.