Cyclamen - Winter Colour...

The cold wet winter persists, except for a few brief dry interludes. It was during one such dry spell I managed to snap some pictures of the cyclamen we have potted up in urns along the terrace, balcony, and cocktail lawn. Even on a gray day we still have some colour...

Urn En Flambeau Parterre...

I decided that creating a garden around the Urn en Flambeau would be a great way to enhance it as a feature of the park, so I've designed a circular parterre to surround it. It was originally designed as a correctly oriented compass rose, but has been redesigned upon interlacing circles. It will stand in the middle of the Versailles Lawn, in a direct line of site from the centre of the terrace, and also in a line of sight from the Roman Rotunda down the central avenue of Lime trees.

Below: The circular garden at Kew which gave me the idea on our last holiday. It has a stone urn as a centrepiece.

Other circular parterres based on compass stars...

Below: The current design for the project...

 Pink Lavender ... 

maybe with a few fragrant malmaison carnations mixed in and some pink hyacinths for seasonal variation...

Purple Salvia...

Yellow/Orange Tulips...

 

With some cheerful marigolds mixed in...

 and finally the dramatic red tulips around the base of the urn...

We will have to come up with a variety of flowers to keep it looking dazzling all year round. The horizon is the limit when is comes to planting the flowers...