The park was designed by 19th centuary landscaper Humphry Repton, but he wasn't the one who planted the many varieties of rhododendron and azaleas here. You should thank the owner during the early 20th centuary, Henry Morris Upcher, for that. The park is now in the hands of the National Trust and the display is a major highlight of the year and attracts hundreds of visitors.
The variety of colour is breathtaking. Reds, yellows, lilacs, pinks, purples, oranges, whites, there seems to be almost every colour from a rainbow here! Looking closer at the individual flowers, I notice that the top petal of every variety of rhododendon, there is a patch of colour which was either a different shade or a completely different colour entirely. I wonder if this was the plant's method to attract pollenators like bees. With some plants, the five petals resembles a human figure with the patch as the figure's face.
|Handkerchief Tree Flower|
|Yellow Flag Iris|