A year ago today, I saw a post on Instagram about the tulip festival at Pashley Manor Gardens in East Sussex and I knew that I absolutely had to go. After a year of planning and looking forward to it, we finally went today and it was every bit as exquisite as we expected.
The history of Pashley Manor is quite fascinating. The house above, with its original Tudor facade, was built in 1550. Almost a century before, Anne Boleyn's great-grandfather Sir Geoffrey Boleyn had owned Pashley. The original house was located on a moted island (which you can still explore) and was most likely a hunting lodge.
The tulip festival runs each year at the end of April and beginning of May. This year, the festival is running from April 19 to May 3 and an impressive 46,000 tulips have been on display.
Naturally, I lost all semblance of self-control on entering the grounds of Pashley Manor and tried to take photos of each and every single tulip.
The grounds at Pashley Manor Gardens are exceptionally well kept. We loved walking around, choosing hidden paths, crossing bridges and spotting new things to see.
This was one of my favourite views of the day, with the right pink tulips in the foreground and the fountain and Pashley Manor in the background.
While we were exploring, we were delighted to see a sign for the Bluebell Walk. I thought I'd missed bluebell season this year, so this was a big treat.
Pashley Manor is home to a large collection of sculptures and most pieces are for sale. The exhibition changes every year, which is exciting because Pashley Manor also has multiple festivals a year, including a rose festival every June.
Stephen had a lot of fun using the Picture This app to find out what many of the trees were. We tried it on a yew tree, with their bottle-brush branches, as well as on azaleas, camellias and other plants.
This was my second favourite view of the day: Pashley Manor in the background with tulips curving in front.
We'd walked around the walled garden, down the Bluebell Trail and alongside the stream but we finally came to the gates of the walled garden.
Our entire visit had been beautiful and life-affirming but the walled garden was something else entirely.
As I stood there, I realised how loud the birdsong was in the garden. It was really moving and beautiful to hear how the garden walls seemed to amplify their calls.
Pashley Manor Gardens
Ticehurst
Near Wadhurst
East Sussex
TN5 7HE
Tickets for the tulip festival cost £15 for adults, £6 for children aged 6-16 and children under 6 go free.
This is the part where I apologise for being scarce this year and I don't even know where to start! Work was super busy from January to mid-March and again since we returned from South Africa. It's been great for my career but not so great for my personal and social life. It seems to finally be calming down now and I can't wait to tell you about all the adventures we've been on in the past six months.
The display looks stunning.
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely - highly recommended!
DeleteThe tulip festival runs each year in April-May in a _very_ Tudor British manor. So it is interesting that the festival focused on flowers that I would have normally considered typically Dutch. The flowers are spectacular, both in colours and shapes, so I am not surprised that visitors flock by their thousands.
ReplyDeleteHow successful is their rose festival every June?
Agreed! I thought I'd need to travel to Holland to see a tulip festival of this magnitude, so this was a real treat.
DeleteI don't know how successful their rose festival is - but the tulip festival was very well-attended and we were grateful we'd gone early in the morning.