Visit to The Linns - Part 1

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It was another GOY day out – Scotsgran and myself planned for a day out at the Linns, by Sherrifmuir, Dunblane. This is the garden of Dr Evelyn Stevens and her husband Lewis. We had been keen to go, especially as this was the garden where G. plicatus Sophie North was originally found.

It was a bit of a dreich morning, we set off hopeful for an improvement in the weather. Knowing we were going to the Ochil Hills, we were not particularly optimistic that it would improve!

Apparently it is a rather difficult place to find – the Driver and navigator (that’s me) had no real difficulty in following the instructions we were given. We found the sign and turn off for the house at first attempt. Mind you we did have to negotiate a few cyclist on the way – we arrived in one piece!

A private road leads up to the house, the cattlegate carried the warning to keep closed – to keep the deer out!

You are immediately welcomed by the wonderful display of snowdrops that lined the roadway leading down to the house.

The Linns is described as a 3 1/2 acre woodland garden. The Stevens moved and began gardening here in 1985. It is comfortably nestled in amongst mature trees and indeed very private and secluded. The house and various outbuildings are of varying age. We had commented on how lovely it would be to garden in such a location but perhaps not in the dead of winter! It was obvious, we agreed, why many folks in these of homes drove 4×4s. We were met by the ‘Under Gardener’ – well it did say so on his sweater – he also doubles up as parking attendant on garden open days. We arrived a little later than expected – although not many visitors had booked, as they are require to do – a few had already turned up without booking – which made the parking attendant’s job a little tricky! There wasn’t much of a parking area but he was doing ever so well! We had a short wait until Evelyn joined us to give us the tour.

What ever way you looked, you could not fail to notice the huge clumps of snowdrops all around the garden. Drifts as far as the eyes could see. Whilst the weather wasn’t perfect – the moist damp conditions really did add to the atmosphere. It was not in the slightest bit cold, perhaps had it been then we might have had a different opinion!

As I go through my pictures, I find I have just over 130 of them! Certainly not practical to upload and show them all on here. I’ll begin with a few of the specials. They grow over 100 named hybrids. It’s at this point I need to confess that my method of taking a picture and noting its name on my phone failed – the notepad page failed to save, therefore I lost all corresponding details. Sorry Scotsgran – I know you wanted the names :(

This one I do know! It’s the only clump of G. Sophie North they have left – she is trying to build up her stock again.

These yellow snowdrops make perfect partners with Aconites – I liked this combo with the evergreen as a background.

Round by one of the greenhouses we found a pure white Snowdrop. Not labelled – we did look for one.

The couple have recently began thinking about downsizing – downsizing their gorgeous stone built cottage will of course mean organising plants to move with them. Although plans have not been finalised – Evelyn has began preparing her snowdrops for a move too.

All around this wonderful garden, Hellebores are in full flower – in a wide range of colours.

This, obviously self seeded hellebore, really caught my eye – although the picture doesn’t show the exact colour – it was almost like crushed strawberries.

This Hellebore was almost black, it provided a wonderful back drop for the pristine white snowdrops.

I’m not sure if this is a Hellebore or not but the foliage contrasted beautifully with the surrounding plants.

Seeing the bare bones of this garden really did open my eyes to how these winter beauties are best grown in order to fully appreciate them. I’ve taken away lots from this one garden visit, it truly was worth it in every respect. Of course, it wasn’t all Snowdrops and Hellebores – the late spring bloomers were at the point of wakening from their winter slumber.
I will cover those in Part 2, once I’ve sorted through the remainder of the photos that is!
I hope you enjoyed the tour so far.

• 13 Mar, 2014
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