Tuesday 24 September 2013

Mount Stewart Gardens

The gardens at Mount Stewart extends to 98 acres and are located on the shores of Strangford Lough, County Down, created by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry in the 1920s and 30s.  They are famed around the world for their grandeur and the bold planting schemes of many rare and tender plants. The gardens' colourful botanical treasures capture the imagination and excite the senses. They are a living, breathing masterpiece and utterly unique, due to Lady Londonderry’s vision and the unusual micro climate of the site - she introduced a stunning array of original plants, creating a wonderful collection of North American, Asiatic and southern hemisphere plants, many of them rarely seen growing outdoors in the British Isles.


After the house's interior, (see yesterday's post), the Marchioness redesigned the gardens in the most lavish way possible. Prior to her husband's succession to the Marquessate in 1915 the gardens had been plain lawns with large decorative pots. She added the Shamrock Garden, the Sunken Garden, increased the size of the lake, added a Spanish Garden with a small hut, the Italian Garden, the Dodo Terrace, Menagerie, the Fountain Pool and laid out walks in the Lily Wood and rest of the estate. In 1957, she gave the gardens to the National Trust.

To this day,visitors to Mount Stewart are touched by her vision and the unique and vast collections of plants from North Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.  Edith's idea of garden sculpture was unique, quirky and fun.  Where else would you find dinosaurs, cheetahs, orang-utans, squirrels and dodos resting among the unique plants?  This distinctive statutory and hard-landscaping are an essential element of the gardens, framing views, providing backdrops and support for plants and a firm surface to walk on.

I suggest you grab a cup of something, put the pictures onto a slide show and sit back and enjoy this walk with me around the wonderful garden, finishing off with a short video from the garden that Lady Mari designed.



















































































































































 




 








 I  know this was a long post, however as I had walked through these gates that have gold leaf on them having seen the garden and loved it, I did not want you to miss anything (for this season anyway), so I hope you enjoyed the gardens.

If the National Trust wished me to do another post sometime, I would be happy to oblige and link it into their site.

The video can be accessed at

http://youtu.be/o6xWzWhx4Ls

If there is a black space below, click it and the video will appear.



Now I hope you enjoyed  the walk and are not exhausted from it.

Many  thanks for visiting. Have a great day/evening.

32 comments:

  1. Wow, 98 acres, that is enormous foot sore, ha ha. And all pictures, so many, great Margaret.

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    1. HI Bob I did not walk over all of the 98 acres!!! Glad you enjoyed looking atthe garden and thanks for comment.

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  2. I wonder how many people will be visiting your corner of the world due to your amazing photos and info!! Fantastic photos and place.

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    1. HI Lynn Very glad you liked the place and photos. I hope some bloggers will come and visit Northern Irealnd. Thaanlsf for comment.

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  3. your coot is beautiful. Great shots of it.

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  4. Lovely photos Margaret and what a beautiful garden with so many flowers and trees - just gorgeous. Particularly liked the topiary and stone statues :)

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    1. HI RR Very glad you enjoyed walking around this garden with me adn enjoyed the flwers and trees as well as the stoe statues. Thanks for oomment.

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  5. Wow. And drool. If I lived close enough I would be in those gardens OFTEN. Thank you.

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  6. You visit THE most interesting places, Margaret!! Beautiful photos! blessings ~ tanna

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    1. HI Tanna I am sure you have intersting place around you to visit however I am glad you like the pace we have here in Northern Ireland. Thaks for comment.

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  7. You visited the beautiful gardens.
    Thank you, that you showed them to us.
    They are very pretty.
    Your photos show the beauty of the garden.
    I send greetings from distant Polish.
    Lucia

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    1. HI Lucja I am very glad you liked the gardens and thanks for comment

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  8. definitely some unique statuary, but i like it. but i LOVE the trees you showed! beautiful place.

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    1. HI Tex Glad you enjoyed the statuary as well as the trees. thanks for comments.

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  9. WoW, what a beautiful place and so many gorgeous images!! i would love to visit!!

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    1. Hi Debbie Very glad you enjoyed seeing these beautiful gardens, so when you are coming? Thanks for comments

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  10. What a spectacular place to visit and take those beautiful photographs. Thank you so much for taking us along!!

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    1. HI I am glad you enjoyed coming with me for the walk around the gardens. Thanks for comments.

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  11. Che meraviglia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sono rimasta a bocca aperta, impazzirei di piacere in un posto del genere. Complimenti per le bellissime foto. Un grande abbraccio
    Emi

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    1. I could notfind a translate button on your blog and i am not sure what country you are from, so i could not translate your comment. Sorry. could you let me know please.

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  12. Everything is just beautiful here, and i bet you walked and walked and WALKED!!! I would love to know what the first flower and the blue flowers are. I love also the columns, the reflections...Most of these pictures just seem really timeless!!! They could be in any era!

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  13. Hi Ginny Yes you are correct, I did quite a bit of walking and it might surprise you there were areas I did not go to. I tried to keep ahead of people and not get them in thet photos.not any easy thing to do on Heritage Saturday when hundreds come to see the house and gardens. Glad you enjoyed walking rondwith me. Now I so not know the name of the first flower but it lookked to me as if it could be in the Kaffir Lily family perhaps. The blue flowers were Delphiniums. Many thanks for your comments.

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  14. Hi Margaret,
    Great photos of beautiful flower gardens.
    Very well photographed.
    Greetings Irma

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    1. Hi I am glad you enjoed the flower gardens and thanks for your kind comments.

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  15. Wonderful photos of the spectacular gardens. Have a great day!

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    1. HI Gunnila Glad you liked the gardens and thanks for comment.

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    1. Hi Adam I looked everywhere for the red squirrels but I found none. Hope you liked the post!

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  17. Such a beautiful garden! Really a wonderful place and your photos are gorgeous! They show all the beauty! Great!

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    1. HI Mary Many thanks for you kind comments and I am glad you enjoyed the gardens. I hope you also saw the post before this one of the magnificet house.

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