Visit to Goldstone Hall Hotel and Gardens – 7 June 2021

/ karen

I’ve been out! Actually out in the car, driving to a garden. It’s only the second time I’ve been out for a garden visit in 16 months. A few weeks ago I visited Belvoir Castle, and this week, I chose Goldstone Hall for my floral excursion. It seems so strange to be out and about, meeting up with friends. Everyone’s experience of the pandemic has been different. Some say their lives changed very little, they continued to travel to work and managed to get out and about when lockdown eased. Others, like me, had to stay at home. Anyway, I’m picking and choosing which outings to go on, and slowly emerging back into a normal life. Here’s a slide show of photos I provide when I’ve been out. Goldstone Hall in North Shropshire didn’t disappoint. It’s a beautifully- designed and immaculately-managed 5 acre garden surrounding a pretty Georgian manor house. Although I didn’t stay overnight, (there are 12 bedrooms) I am planning to return with my Mum for a short break soon. The idea of waking up early, and quietly wandering around the masses of roses, vegetables and herbs, definitely appeals.

This Abutilon vitifolium is one of the first shrubs you see when you step into the garden. It’s a fast-growing shrub from Chile with vine-like leaves and abundant pale mauve flowers. It flowers mainly in spring and early summer, but can flower all summer long if happy in a sheltered warm position. It can easily be grown from seed and cuttings.

The main flower border runs along a sunny wall. There’s roses and clematis all along the walls, with perennials and grasses in front.

Here’s another view of the wall, taken from the front of the border. Some pretty wine-coloured aquilegias grow in patches all along the border. This one looks like the variety Bordeaux Barlow.

Lupins in the cutting garden look particularly lovely in early June. There’s masses of sweet peas, cornflowers, sunflowers and gladioli to follow.

A herb walk is a scented pathway with 100 different herbs planted alongside heritage vegetables, salads and heirloom fruit trees and bushes.

More herbs are planted within a parterre of box plants. The creeping thyme looks colourful in Summer.

The polytunnel is packed with produce. I am going to copy the idea for growing strawberries in lengths of guttering with a drip watering system attached. Would keep the plants off the ground and away from slugs- and it would be much easier to pick fruit.

Not an inch of space is wasted in the poly tunnel.

After a head-gardener tour of the grounds, we enjoyed a delicious lunch in this open-sided oak pavilion. Perfect for a lovely warm summer’s day.

We had new potatoes, freshly dug from the plot, a spinach and asparagus quiche, and salad – all grown in the gardens we had just walked around.

Here’s the recipe for the panna cotta we enjoyed.

The view of the garden from one of the reception rooms in the hotel. There’s a sense of peace and tranquility here.

More information about Goldstone Hall.

Goldstone Hall is an Royal Horticultural Society ( RHS) partner garden, and opens for the National Gardens Scheme and for garden group tours. There’s more on the website at https://goldstonehallhotel.co.uk/.

I wrote about Belvoir Castle here: https://bramblegarden.com/2021/05/21/visit-to-belvoir-castle-gardens/

Many thanks to the Garden Media Guild for organising our tour.

Thank you for reading the blog and getting in touch. Enjoy your gardens during this spell of lovely sunny weather we are having.

23 thoughts on “Visit to Goldstone Hall Hotel and Gardens – 7 June 2021”

    • I’ve really missed trips out to visit gardens, Cathy. It is rather overwhelming, but I’m choosing locations carefully and checking they will not be overcrowded. Luckily we were the only party visiting the garden. I’m not ready to go into busy places just yet. Take care and enjoy the weekend 🙂💚🌸

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  4. Lovely to hear that you’ve been able to start re-visiting gardens, Karen. So good for the soul! This one looks special. I’m not familiar with it but now on my list for a visit (along with many others!). You must have been taking a photo of the mauve abutilon at the same time as flowers appeared on mine! Hope we can meet again very soon xx

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    • Thank you Mary. You would love this garden. So much to see. And another garden, Wollerton Old Hall is nearby. I’m writing about that next as we went there in the afternoon. See you soon I hope. Xx

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  8. A pleasant tour. Your quiche from the garden reminded me of the spaghetti trees April Fool’s hoax, which has never been equalled.

    Is there another name for aquilegia? I’have got something very much like the flower growing in my garden, but it is purple. I think it might be a gift from the birds. I did not plant it.

    A nice day out.

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    • Thank you. Ah, I’d forgotten about those ‘spaghetti trees.’ 🙂 . The only other name I know is granny’s bonnets because the flowers usually look like little hats! Thanks for reading. 👍🌸

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    • Thank you! My first visit there. Would have happily stayed there a week! So much to see. The head gardener is a magician. He doesn’t say very much, but the garden and everything he’s achieved speaks for itself. Hope you get to visit soon. Thanks for reading. 🙂

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