Our own flower and garden festival COMPLETED - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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This trip report will cover a weekend where my parents came down to visit us. It won’t cover the bits where we were at home, or out in the garden working (don’t ask – that’s just how it is with my parents! ). Instead, it will focus on the two days out that we enjoyed.
On the Saturday, my mum and I went to Leeds Castle for their flower festival, while my dad and Mark went to the Royal Engineers’ Museum. Let’s just say that neither of them were very impressed with the museum, so we’ll pass that one by, as I wasn’t there, and I can’t say for sure, and of course Mark didn’t shoot anywhere near as many photos as I did so I don’t have a good record of what they actually did and saw.
On the Sunday, all four of us went to Sissinghurst Castle, which is about half an hour’s drive from where we live. I have to say to call it a castle, to me, is misleading. Sure, there’s a tower in it, but we see the main attractions here as the gardens, hence the title of this trip report. It’s a National Trust property, so Mark and I get free entry with our lifelong tickets, thanks to our friend Maureen’s generous gift a few years ago, and one of the reasons we were going to go that day is that she’d be on a coach tour taking in Sissinghurst, so we’d get to see her as well.
My mum and I set off just before 10:00am, as that’s when Leeds Castle opens. My goodness, when we got there, I think our hearts fell. The main car park was already full, and we were down to parking on one of the fields. Our first thought was “this is going to be busy”… although as we made our way up to the entrance, we didn’t see that many other people. We showed our tickets, which incidentally would expire a couple of days later. They’re good for a year, and I’ve certainly got my money’s worth out of mine over the last 12 months.
We headed in, and made our way through the gardens. We didn’t exactly rush, but we certainly didn’t take as much time as I had with Debbie a couple of weeks earlier. For starters, we didn’t have the luck of the wildlife sightings this time. Not a peacock in sight, never mind any of those cute peacock babies… There were some signs of fall colour just starting to peak through…
We found this guy – look at the size of his feet!
We had one lonely swan sighting…
… then we started to glimpse the castle – I always love getting my first sight of it as you make your way down to it.
Soon we were up to the castle entrance, and once again, it was very quiet here, especially given how busy the car park was.
We headed through the new entrance, complete with the flyby video showing how the castle had developed over the centuries. My mum was very impressed with it.
We headed outside, and were greeted with this – isn’t it just amazing? It was the first exhibit of the flower festival. Most exhibits were inside the castle, but this one was one heck of a way to start off! We stood there for ages admiring it from all angles. It was just perfect and had such a wonderful backdrop of the castle behind it, so it made for some wonderful photos.
Very nice to do a late-season garden tour. The gardens at Sissinghurst are my favorites of all I've seen in England. Looking forward to seeing what's blooming in late September.
Very nice to do a late-season garden tour. The gardens at Sissinghurst are my favorites of all I've seen in England. Looking forward to seeing what's blooming in late September.
It'll be interesting to see what you make of what was in bloom. I thought there was a fair bit, but my mum didn't think there was much....
I was hoping there was going to be a TR after seeing your photos on Facebook. That floral arrangement out in front of the castle is stunning. They had to have considered how beautiful it would be with the castle as a backdrop.
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I was hoping there was going to be a TR after seeing your photos on Facebook.
I said about halfway round to my mum that I'd have to do a trip report to share all the amazing displays. It's always quicker to upload photos to Facebook, but the trip reports take a bit more work...
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That floral arrangement out in front of the castle is stunning. They had to have considered how beautiful it would be with the castle as a backdrop.
I'm sure they did, as it was beautifully positioned.
Saturday 27 September – part two: I bet they charge a premium for this…
We made our way round to the castle entrance…
The first display we came across was in the heraldry room…
I loved the pollen in this shot…
They also had competition entries throughout the castle, although sadly they didn’t explain what the category was each had entered, which was a bit of a shame…
The next major display was in the Queen’s Bedroom, and it was absolutely stunning!
Sadly, the Queen’s Bathroom display was difficult to photograph, with the light streaming in from behind…
From here, it was into the Queen’s Gallery. This display didn’t do as much for me as some of the previous ones:
In the courtyard was this very bizarre display. I think, from memory, it was supposed to be something to do with poets, but it just looked like a mess to us…
We were delighted that we could get inside the Banqueting Hall, as we’d been told earlier there was a wedding on in there, so we might not be able to see it. We speculated for a long time as to whether these flowers were for the flower festival or for the wedding. I personally thought they were for the flower festival, and then they probably charged a premium to get married here while it’s on, as you then get your floral displays included, if that makes sense? Certainly, the programme said that the table pieces, and the display above the fireplace were part of the festival…
We headed upstairs…
The next major display was in the seminar room, and once again, it was very striking…
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Saturday 27 September – part three: “festival obese cow”!
You’ll probably have noticed a lot of the displays had similar autumnal colours so far, and that’s why this competition entry really appealed to me, because it was so different.
The colours in Lady Baillie’s dressing room were very subtle, and I adored the shade of the roses in here:
It was a much more vibrant feel in her bedroom:
The next room was the Catherine of Aragon bedroom, although sadly this one was again very hard to photograph, because of the light streaming in through the window behind. Hopefully you can get an idea of what it was like…
There were a few more competition entries outside…
It’s interesting how much different people’s perspectives can differ on things, and no more clearly was that illustrated than in the next display around the main staircase. I really liked this, but my mum wasn’t keen at all…
However, we did both love the display in the yellow drawing room. I think this was perhaps my favourite inside the castle…
We went into the other drawing room, and while this was nice, it wasn’t anywhere near as impressive as the previous room…
There were a few final displays on the way out…
We headed outside to try and find “festival cow”, as it was noted on our guide. We hadn’t seen him on the way in, and we could tell from the numbering that he had to be outside. I asked a staff member where he was, and he pointed, quite vaguely we both thought, towards a tree. My mum and I both looked, and still couldn’t see anything, but we decided to head off that way in the hope we’d find him. We did, but he was under the other tree, not the one the staff member pointed at. I have to say neither of us were overly impressed with him, and we quickly called him “festival obese cow”. I’m sure you’ll see what I mean!
What gorgeous flower displays! And then with the backdrop of Leeds, even better! So it doesn't seem that you ever dealt with great crowds. Was the full parking lot the result of wedding guests? But where are they hiding? Sounds like you may be coming across them in the next installment.
Usually I'm a big fan of autumn colors, but my favorites of the displays so far are the more traditional arrangements in Lady Baillie's dressing room. They're gorgeous, yet blend in and complement the room.
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). Instead, it will focus on the two days out that we enjoyed. 
so I don’t have a good record of what they actually did and saw. 
There were some signs of fall colour just starting to peak through… 
We stood there for ages admiring it from all angles. It was just perfect and had such a wonderful backdrop of the castle behind it, so it made for some wonderful photos. 
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
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