I had an early morning assignment in Harrogate this morning after which we headed over to RHS Harlow Carr for a walk round the gardens and brunch.

It was a dull, cloudy and overcast morning, looking through my diary I cannot believe it was over two months since our last visit, I do not know where the time has gone.

This time of year is a lovely time to visit these gardens, the main borders still have plenty of colour with the late flowering perennials and ornamental grasses providing a beautiful autumnal crimson colour.

As is customary, on arrival I popped into Betty’s café for a coffee and slice of cake to start the walk with. After leaving the visitors’ centre we stopped for a few moments at the bottom of the steps to admire the views across the gardens before following the path past the ‘learning centre’, teaching gardens and stopping at the ‘sunken Edwardian Garden’. Just around the corner is a lovely wildflower area which is full of colour at the moment. 

Work continues to install a footbridge over the corner of ‘the QM lake’, since our last visit in July the footings have been put in place. The lake is currently covered with lilies and weed at the moment, though work is ongoing to transform this part of the garden. On passing the lake we followed the ‘Streamside walk’ to the ‘Old Bath house’. This is a lovely walk, no matter what time of year you visit, the Japanese maples providing lots of colour, their red, orange and yellow leaves standing out against their gnarly twisted trunk. The Acer trees also are changing colour too, their golden red and yellow leaves adding splashes of colour alongside the stream.

From spring through to autumn, the Streamside is awash with colour with a vast range of plants that flourish in its moist, cool setting including hostas, Rodgersia, Gunnera, Astilbe, Filipendula and Iris sibirica, as well as ferns from the National Plant Collection of Dryopteris. Hosta ‘Empress Wu’, one of the world’s largest hostas with leaves up to 56cm (22in) across, can be found thriving here. 

After passing the newly restore streamside bridge adjacent to the ‘Geoffrey Smith memorial stone’ we continued our walk to ‘the old bath house’ were we had a browse through a wide selection of art and craft gifts from paintings and sketches to pottery and bracelets.  We had brunch sat outside at ‘Betty’s tea house’, we prefer this rather than having to queue for forty-five minutes at the main Betty’s near the main entrance. After our refreshment break, we continued our walk along the opposite of the stream and headed up the slope to the newly restored ‘Sandstone Garden’, as autumn progresses, the purple foliage of Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ AGM turns a fiery red, complementing the hot oranges of A. japonicum ‘Aconitifolium’ AGM. On the water’s edge, Cyperus longus fades into beige, while Pontederia cordata AGM continues to stand upright. This area has certainly become well established since our last visit. After passing through the ‘rockery we headed over to the main ‘garden centre’ for another browse at the plants, pots and ornaments before heading indoors to have a look around the excellent book and giftshop.