Fantastical Irish Sky Garden: Chelsea 2011

Largest ever show garden: Fantastical realm created by Diarmuid Gavin for Chelsea 2011

Irish Sky Garden

Read more on... Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

Brilliant! Best Show Garden - Chelsea 2011

RHS Chelsea Flower Show: A Gold for designer Cleve West and Best Show Garden award!

San Francisco to London: The Chelsea Flower Show

Alluring, perfectly grown Alliums & Eremurus

(I believe the display pictured to be Devine Nurseries of East Yorkshire)

It's official: I've been quoted by The Bad Tempered Gardener herself: Anne Wareham

stating, in essence, that other flower shows pale in comparison with the glorious horticulture and panache of the Chelsea Flower Show.

Home... after two weeks in England, planned around an invitation to attend Chelsea's Press Day.

There's much to share, taking in the countryside, too: All to appear in the days & weeks ahead.

You'll find a special horticultural highlight from Kevock Garden Plants 
...posted on my web site: Alice's Garden Travel Buzz ...

It's a rarity I've never before encountered.

Howell Mountain Hillside: O'Shaughnessy Winery

O'Shaughnessy Winery Vista: Slopes of Howell Mountain in the hills above St. Helena.

(Photos © Alice Joyce)

Jack Chandler, Landscape Architect

Spent a lively day buzzing around Napa Wine Country with Jack Chandler, looking at various projects of Jack's spanning private estates to inviting wineries.

One project we toured, O'Shaughnessy Winery in Angwin was new to me. Difficult to imagine a more beautiful site than this East Napa County landscape, with its terraces that take full advantage of the view.

An off-the-beaten path locale for wine loving cognescenti, the winery boasts a scented entry path lined in fragrant roses, befitting a tasting of their 2007 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, which proved to be delectably stimulating. A full-bodied melding of blackberry and chocolate, blueberry, black raspberry and plum notes with cinnamon and vanilla aromas that distinguish the varietal, there are still more complex flavors to tease the palate and emerge at the finish. ((A Robert Parker rating of 95 points.))

Landscape architecture by Jack Chandler.

Sanctuary for Succulents: Ruth Bancroft Garden Reprise

View with Hesperaloe parviflora -- Photos: Brian Kemble

Echinopsis hybrid

Displaying an originality that outshines traditional garden settings, The Ruth Bancroft Garden reveals an eccentric cast of characters and an enthusiasm for succulent plants that traces back to the 1950s, when Mrs. Bancroft first began collecting potted specimens.

View with Agave salmiana

Mrs. Bancroft celebrated her 100th birthday, and another milestone is just around the corner!

Agave celsii Flower

Bancroft Garden Views