I NEED a holiday!

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It seems ages since we went to Italy, to Lake Maggiore. It was in September last year – not that long, really.

However, I feel as though I really need a break from all the dismal weather here – but as a ‘real’ holiday isn’t possible, I can look back – and show you some photos of …guess what? Another garden that we visited in the warm Italian sunshine. I shall imagine I’m there – care to join me?

Now this one is a cracker – I took so many photos that it would take I-don’t-know-how-long to load them – so here’s a taster, starting with a view from the garden to the lake shore.

The gardens at Villa Taranto were laid out by a Scot – Captain Neil Boyd McEacharn – between 1931 and 1939, when he handed them over to the Italian Government. There are 7 kilometers of paths in the gardens, set on a peninsula overlooking wonderful views of the lake thrugh the trees.

The garden is a botanical paradise, with its own micro-climate. It’s a mixture of tree planted slopes with both native trees and trees brought from Scotland and all round the world, formal Italian gardens, fountains, ponds both formal and informal, glasshouses, statues, borders and beds, exotica and wonderful vistas. It even boasts a dahlia maze with over 300 different dahlias in it!

You enter the gardens and walk along a path edged with formal beds full of colour. At each side, trees soar above you.

Off to the right is a wonderful ornate fountain, surrounded by Colocasia antiquorum plants with their huge leaves. It’s magical when the sun shines through them!

Following the path that runs past the fountain, you can’t help but stop frequently to gaze at the perfection of the tropical flowers on each side of the path – I recognised different coloured Hibiscus, Oleanders, Lagerstroemeria indica, Canna indica and Bougainvillea – but also many that I hadn’t ever seen before.

Off down another path between many different species of Acers and other beautiful specimen trees – different ones to catch the eye round every bend..

You finally arrive at the Dahlia maze. I’ve never seen so many different dahlias before – ranging from tiny pom-pom flowers to huge dinner-plate sized blooms.

Up a little further is the huge glasshouse, which isn’t what you expect at all! It’s kept locked – but you can see through the open windows that inside is a large rectangular pond. There are the most glorious purple and blue water lilies there, and other beautiful water plants – but taking up most of the space is Victoria amazonica – an enormous plant with leaves 2 metres across! A leaf is large and strong enough to bear a five kg weight! This water lily originates in South America.

At the top of the hill in the formal Italian gardens, there are statues, fountains, colourful bedding plants, perfect lawns and a view of the Villa where the Captain lived – all adding up to an unforgettable sight.

The Captain gave the garden to the Italian Government which opened it to the public in 1952, but he is buried in a Mausoleum in the gardens – the door is flanked by beautifully planted urns. He never left the special place he created!

Back down the zig-zags a different way, I spotted a sheet of variegated Liriope – what a sight that was! They were thriving in the shade of the huge trees.

Several other special plantings caught my eye on the way back to the gate – agaves with cacti.

A wonderful shrub with exotic dangling clusters of shining flowers – its name is Erythrina crista-galli – I loved that one!

Tree ferns – Dicksonia antarctica with strange almost prehistoric looking ferns amongst them – hardy here in this sheltered valley.

And finally – another beautiful specimen tree – a Cryptomeria japonica ‘Globosa’. I wonder if Bluespruce has this in his garden?

At the gate, they give you a leaflet to tell you what is in flower in each month that the gardens are open – I’d love to visit every month!

But it’s time to make for the landing stage outside the gate, get back on the boat and travel up the lake to our hotel. What a wonderful special garden this is – I enjoyed my mini-holiday there this afternoon – and it was sunny!

4 Feb, 2010
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Comments

Wagger

I feel as if I've been on holiday with you, lol. Lovely blog, brilliant photographs, stunning garden. What a wonderful place to be buried - I bet he keeps an eye on the gardeners.

4 Feb, 2010

Terratoonie

Enjoyed the tour. Thank you :o)

4 Feb, 2010

Ian_digs_v2

What a glorious place to visit and such wonderfully diverse plants to see. It certainly was worth the trip back to see it all Lol.
That has definitely warmed me up on this cold and miserable day!
Thank you Spritz!

4 Feb, 2010

I NEED a holiday!

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