"The Atholl Palace is one of my favourite places where each year we meet up with good friends and have fun. It's the perfect place to stay in a perfect setting with lovely people looking after us. What more could a person want?"
June 2004
The herb and wild garden is a busy place in June. Blue tits are nesting in several cracks in the old wall.
Thrushes and blackbirds are working the ground for a mouthful of worms and in the evening listen out for their lovely, melodic songs.Oh, and the gardeners are busy picking herbs and fresh leaves, daily, for the kitchen in between sitting in the sun and enjoying the ambience of this lovely spot.
With the warm dry weather the gardens really have blossomed in the last few weeks. Most of the perennials have re-emerged after the winter stronger than last , their first, year and should begin to bloom in the next few weeks. The rhodies and azaleas are a great show and the yellow blooms of the Laburnum trees are stunning. The Palace ducks, miffed that their winter feeding regime has stopped have taken to the top lawns in search of a tasty snack.
There are some nice lupins coming into flower in various spots around the grounds but for a real eye-opener take a stroll to the herb garden. There, purple lupins are out en masse contrasting nicely with the yellow flowering tree lupin. Tadpoles are growing rapidly in the new pond in the herb garden and many of the birds can be watched, very closely, bathing and drying around the pond-edge.
Our winter planting regime of rugosa roses is about to bear fruit. The white and yellow Scotch roses are in bloom, now, with a wonderful fragrance and over the years we hope all these roses will grow and develop to give added interest to those who visit the grounds. It is a great pleasure for Kenny and myself to be able to work in the Palace gardens. Not only the satisfaction in watching a special plant develop, often from seed, but also in meeting the many visitors who show an interest in the plants, in many cases with far greater knowledge than ours. Today, for example, a rose collector from Uruguay who mentioned many favourites….and we were more than pleased when his choice coincided with some we had already planted, Kiftsgate, Hansa, Roserie de l’Hay, Wedding day and others.
On the morning of 13th June, at 10am, I watched a female red squirrel making two trips up the main steps, across the lawn and under the benches towards the woodland beyond. Was she carrying a plum? No she was moving her, still hairless, young.
Innes Smith
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