It was a dull, cloudy, and overcast morning with low lying mist and fog in the air and a temperature of 7c. Despite the current weather the forecast for today was for bright sunshine and a high of 15c which made it ideal weather to head over to RHS Harlow Carr on the outskirts of Harrogate.

We had an uneventful journey to Harrogate though we had to drive through lots of road works and additional traffic lights on the way out of Harrogate to the gardens, which put another fifteen minutes onto our journey time. Today’s visit was our first this year, we didn’t visit in November or see the gardens lit up in December due to the inclement weather we had over the winter period, namely the wind and rain!

It was just after 10.00am when we arrived at the gardens, , unfortunately the weather was still cloudy and foggy with a cool northerly breeze, very similar to that at home, and still no sign of the sunshine. I popped into Bettys for the obligatory coffee and caramel slice before heading next door through the ticket office and out into the gardens. Standing at the top of the steps looking over the gardens down to the stream is always a lovely view and today was no different other than being shrouded in a light fog. The Heather beds to our right were coming into full flower with a full palette of colour ranging from blues, lilac, purple, white, to pink. The newly formed pond and rockery in front of the restaurant was beginning to look quite colourful with heathers and hellebore’s adding splashes of colour. Continuing down the slope we headed left and followed the ‘winter walk’ towards the ‘Queen Mother’s Lake’. Orange and Red Dog wood bushes, with Heather and miniature daffodils and blue flowering miniature Irises in full flower brought welcome splashes of colour on a dull, grey and misty morning. These borders were alive with colour. What looked like Cotoneaster bushes were laden with bright red berries and beautiful miniature purple flowering Irises were in full flower. Witch Hazel trees were still in flower their orange and red coloured florets looked like giant sized house spiders dangling from the tree branches. More borders of heather, vibrant red and yellow dog wood bushes and white/cream-coloured Hellebores filled the borders. Continuing our walk past the ‘Learning Centre’ many of the barren borders had been heavily mulched, the ‘teaching gardens’ were looking quite bare today. A lot of work and hard landscaping was being caried out with some heavy machinery around the ‘Lakeside Garden’ and the ‘sunken Victorian Garden’. It will be interesting to see the progress being made on our next visit. We doubled back on ourselves as the bridge over the ‘QM Lake’ lake was cordoned off due to the work being carried out there. On reaching the stream we followed the footpath to the ‘Old Bathhouse’, pockets of miniature Daffodils, Snowdrops, miniature Irises and Hellebores provided plenty of colour along the banks of the stream. On reaching the ‘Old Bath House’ we usually stop at ‘Betty’s tea house for brunch but as it was quite cool, misty and overcast, we decided to give it a miss today and followed the stream on the opposite bank back up to the Sandstone rock garden. Beds of large Snowdrops trembled in the cool morning air and large beds of Puschinia Scillodes, commonly known as striped squill, added some class and elegance to the borders and around the ponds, their delicate blue and white star-shaped flowers, accented with faint stripes, made it quite a feature in this setting. We continued up the slope to the top footpath opposite the garden centre. Many of the large borders which run all the way down to the stream have been reshaped and will be replanted in a scheme scheduled to take between three to five years. Of note today was the golden grasses and seedheads which have been left to overwinter in order to provide a valuable food source for the birds as well as giving some protection from the elements to the other garden wildlife.

Despite the weather there was still plenty to see, let’s hope on our next visit the weather will be more Spring like.