Three glorious minutes in late October at the Exotic Garden
Posted on | November 2, 2011 | 8 Comments
Many apologies to my regular readers for not posting since Oct 20th – here is my excuse!
Since I returned from hosting a two week cruse around Madeira and the Canaries with 49 guests in tow, I have been spending pretty much all my time getting the garden prepared for winter and bringing in all those cherished tender exotics – always a big job and getting bigger every year as everything keeps growing! It took two days to bring in my ever expanding collection of Bromeliads which now totals well over 150 plants of which some are now absolutely enormous – I’m not exaggerating, one Aechmea is now over four feet across and darn heavy! Of course they all have to be cleaned, re-potted, preened and all their funnels drained of water, then artistically placed in my 30×10ft Polly tunnel which now resembles (with all the other exotics) part of the palm House at Kew. Seeing as they are going to be there for approximately half the year, I do like it to be a show piece as I will be spending a lot of time in there over the long dark winter months – I love going in there on Christmas day!
Last week while I was working on the garden with several volunteers in tow, my good friend and photographer Chris Ridley was trying out a new steadycam rig for his HD camera. While we were working away enjoying the late autumnal heat, Chris spent several hours silently gliding around the garden with his camera making a film. A week later the film was complete – after 15 hours editing, 5 hours processing and 8 hours uploading his 3 minute masterpiece was finished. I was amazed that he could make a film about the garden in late October and make it look so – good!
It may be short but never-the-less perfectly formed, so here it is for your edification and enjoyment…
Around the beautiful Exotic Garden from Chris Ridley on Vimeo.
Comments
8 Responses to “Three glorious minutes in late October at the Exotic Garden”
Leave a Reply
November 3rd, 2011 @ 6:27 am
Wonderful! That will make the perfect winter viewing to remind me of how good the garden can be, thank you!
November 4th, 2011 @ 11:49 am
A tantalising glimpse of your Must Visit garden, mixing the exotics and ordinaire so well, especially from the chosen perspectives.
No idea how you find time or energy to host a 2 wk cruise as well
November 4th, 2011 @ 4:45 pm
Simply wonderful to glide through such a beautiful garden , thank you.
November 8th, 2011 @ 8:16 pm
Glad you all liked it – I will see if I can twist Chris Ridley’s arm into doing some more – a lot of work on his part though, but worth it!
November 8th, 2011 @ 11:40 pm
That was fantastic!! What a treat! looked just as stunning as it did in August!(can’t believe that is three months ago!) I loved the music too, perfect!
November 9th, 2011 @ 5:50 pm
Please post your photos of the Madeira & Canaries trip.
Always enjoy the nurseries you visit.
November 12th, 2011 @ 6:46 pm
Wow, I Love your garden…it’s fantastic
All the best from Denmark
/Henrik
November 24th, 2011 @ 1:11 pm
It is always hard work getting the garden ready at this time of year.
The mild weather is helping, but we still have quite a few plants to sort out. Some are ready to go under cover but are sat outside their winter homes enjoying a bit more of the mild weather.
Last year we ended up with a kitchen full of plants during the coldest spell!