Winterthur is the legacy of Henry Francis du Pont, 1880-1969, American

 

 

2013-2019, 2021

 

At Winterthur deciduous azaleas are planted in a concentration of the greatest beauty.  A few bushes are elsewhere in the grounds.

 

 

 

These plantings are separated by steps from the flowering quince: among the earliest bushes to flower in Spring.

 

 

 

 

A Faber fir tree grows up a short embankment behind and above these azaleas

 

 

 

 

On another side are white azaleas

 

at least 12 stamens so this may not be an azalea but a rhododendron

 

 

which form a ring

 

 

 

on the approach to a magnificent blue atlas cedar

 

 

 

 

some of whose giant boughs incline slightly upwards from the parallel. Some curve towards the ground.

 

 

 

 

Through the gap between these boughs in May a glimpse of an entire conclave of azaleas of the loveliest colours. 

 

 

 

 

Hybrid azaleas. Considered native.

 

 

Flowers lighter on the bush and bushes lighter on the ground than Kurume azaleas.  Nothing massed about these plantings. 

 

A tenacious fragility about them because they are small bushes and are both deciduous and perennial.

 

 

 

 

Fortunate to come upon this conclave when you did not know of its existence makes you very fortunate! 

 

 

A place of great beauty.

 

 

 

The upper boughs of green-blue-grey of the blue atlas cedar point the way. 

 

 

 

Planted elsewhere in the grounds of Winterthur

 

 

 

Rain has been through

 

Spanish bluebells are planted among the azaleas