The Saturday of a warm and sunny Easter weekend, saw us plan to travel to Hampshire to visit Exbury Gardens. This is a place we hadn't previously visited, but one we saw on tv and in a paper supplement and which looked attractive.
A quick peruse of the site map was enough to persuade us, as it looked like a huge and interesting site.
Arriving mid morning, we parked easily and made our way to the entrance hall. Once the tickets had been purchased, we walked through to start exploring. The variety and colour, particularly of Rhododendrons, was amazing.
Following one of the many paths, we soon came to the area that had been planted with 100000 Spring bulbs. This was a mass of mainly yellow, as Daffodils dominated the scene. There were blue flowers mixed in, but they were smaller and not so easy to spot.
Soon it was time for lunch, which we had brought with us. A seat was found under a tree in part shade and part sun, in a very pleasant spot close to the house there. While sitting there, I noticed a small avenue of trees brought alive by an abundant flowering of cherry blossom.
A short walk along the drive brought us to a Champion Tree, dating back to 1930 something.
Shortly after we found another nice spot to sit and take in the splendour - surrounded by Primroses and Bluebells.
Continuing, we came to the Daffodil Meadow, which we assumed would have been a mass of colour over a large area a few weeks ago with the added attraction of this piece stretching down towards the River Beaulieu. Would have looked incredible if we had caught it in bloom.
Soon after, we ventured onto the riverside walk alongside the River Beaulieu (photo above). There were several benches along this route, that enabled us to stop and enjoy the tranquility.
The rest of what turned out to be a 4 hour stay at the gardens was spent exploring the various garden payouts, with the cascades being a particular highlight due to the wonderful palette of colours on display there. There was also a nice reflection on show at the lower pond, as rhododendrons and azaleas are planted close to the edges.
We were really pleased with our day out, a great place to visit on a sunny day.
