"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?"
April 2009
This spring will go down as the year of the daffodil. Conditions over the winter seem to have suited this plant and we have been rewarded with a spectacular display around the grounds. Early April weather has been sunny and warm....but not hot,due to the easterly haar, and this has also helped the daffodils to flower for longer.
The 9 hole golf course has undergone a make-over in recent weeks. The many bunkers were beginning to become too much to maintain so they have been re-arranged. Some have disappeared,others have become grass mounds and those that are left have been cleaned out and re-filled with proper bunker sand. White,gleaming and inviting. We now have to look after them and keep them that way. The putting green is now being cut at 6mm. It’s faster than ever and the new layout of the pins(by Dougal Spaven) has made it even more challenging, but great fun for all those who dare to have a round. Miss many of the pins and your ball has gone.....well down the slope!
Plants to see at this time include the imposing Fritillaria imperialis(herb garden border) and Fritillaria meleagris, the snake’s head version. Erythronium pagoda are in many of the borders and are a wonderful ,understated plant with lovely yellow flowers. Cowslip,cuckoo flower and common primrose are all in flower in shady corners throughout the woodlands. Some of the herbs in the culinary bed are getting a bit tired and woody so french tarragon and sage are being replaced and new season parsley has been planted out for the chefs. We are having a rest from cut flowers this year and replacing them with a variety of lettuce and beans in the beds in the herb garden. Fresh greens from the garden...nothing beats them.
Spring has sprung, come and enjoy a stroll around the grounds. Innes
acer.jpg)
