The Abbey Gardens, Tresco.

When Peter first suggested going to The Scilly Isles I immediately said that I must visit the gardens on Tresco. The IOS have a unique climate in that although they are lashed by Atlantic storms, (one of our group spoke of watching storm waves breaking over the harbour wall and the 2 storey Mermaid pub to knock the police landrover over), they rarely have frosts due to sitting in the Gulf Stream. Goodness knows what will happen with global warming because the Gulf Stream is already beginning to make its predicted move and if it leaves altogether the IOS and the UK will be very much colder. Peter and I had both taken extra time off work so we were able to spend the whole of Monday on Tresco. We had thought about doing a 3 islands in one day trip but I think I would have cried if I had got there and only had an hour to explore these wonderful gardens.
The gardens were full of enormous succulents and many tender plants in flower including different varieties of proteus.


At almost every step I was oohing and aahing and finally went into total burble overload with the camera in constant use. (Expect plenty of individual flowers to appear at the bottom of future blogs.)

A lot of the garden was on a slope so there were frequent views across the sea to the neighbouring islands.

There was also a good collection of different kinds of palms and tree ferns. There were quite a number of modern sculptures scattered around the gardens but my eye was mainly drawn to the plants.

There were a number of fancy gold and silver pheasants roaming around. We didn't see the hen with a number of fluffy chicks that someone told us about but when we sat to eat our sandwiches, (the cafe was rather pricey), we were visited by a silver cock pheasant who had no qualms about taking food from my hand. Indeed he even jumped up on my knee at which point I hid my sandwich inside my jacket. There was also a group of sparrows, thrushes and blackbirds around our feet waiting for food. The funniest thing was that when a member of staff strode across the lawn the pheasant ran off into the bushes like a naughty boy caught doing something he shouldn't and then reappeared when she had gone. In general we found all the 'wild' birds very tame and at the camp site they would soon appear if we sat at the tables to eat. There were surprisingly few seagulls about, perhaps it is too far from the mainland. I recall the constant cry of gulls when I lived in St Ives and they are notorious for stealing ice creams and pasties from unsuspecting tourists. Maybe they have shot them all on IOS.

For me the gardens on Tresco were definitely the highlight of the trip. I was very good and refrained from 'pruning' mainly because they were mostly tender plants which would not survive here. I did buy some blue & white agapanthus on St Mary's which I have put in pots. It was too early for them to be flowering but you could see great clumps of them in every body's gardens.

I have been at work all day today. It was pouring with rain in the morning but brightened up in the afternoon and now I am looking at the sparkling lime green leaves of the beech trees dancing in the wind.