The Gardening School- Belmond Le Manoir
Back in September I was kindly invited to visit Raymond Blancs ‘Gardening School’ at the
A Belmond Hotel located in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside, where I enjoyed a wonderful day taking part in the ‘Seed To Bouquet’ course with August The Head Gardener and Suzanne the resident florist. The course was held in the glasshouse in the magical gardens at Belmond Le Manoir.
The’ Seed To Bouquet’ day course is designed for you to learn how to grow an array of cut flowers to fill your garden with vibrant home-grown seasonal blooms to create your very own beautiful hand-tied bouquets to enjoy in vases all around your home or to give professional looking florists bunches as gifts for friends and family. I absolutely love flowers and growing things in my own garden at home, so I was very excited to take part in this day course at Belmond Le Manoir.
The stunning array of blooms in the glasshouse for making our seasonal bouquet.
I enjoyed a wander round the beautiful gardens at Le Manoir.
Seasonal foliage and flowers in the glasshouse for creating our very own florists bouquet.
I had the loveliest of mornings with August who is Head Gardener at the Raymond Blanc Gardening School. We walked round the gardens seeing all the produce they grow for the kitchen, & spent the morning sowing lots of flower seeds for me to enjoy seeing them grow at home and plant out in my garden next year. August’s enthusiasm & passion for growing was infectious & I learnt so much. Very excited for my plans for my garden next year now!
After a delicious lunch in the glasshouse, I spent a lovely afternoon with resident florist Suzanne who taught me (very patiently!) how to create my very own hand tied bunch of seasonal blooms.
A wander round the garden at Le Manoir.
I loved seeing all the gardens where all the produce is grown for the kitchens. It was so inspiring.
Suzanne demonstrating how to make a hand-tied seasonal florist’s bouquet.
Suzanne’s bouquet was so beautiful!!
There were so many areas of the garden to explore, but a favourite for me was the ‘Wild Flower Meadow’ designed by Chris Beardshaw for Raymond Blanc.
It is a ‘Wild Flower Meadow’ planted under the cover of the apple orchard to enjoy wildflowers in each season. I took these photos in early Autumn, so there was a glorious mix of seed-heads, soft autumn tones and end of summer flowers which were simply breathtaking.
The ‘Wild Flower Meadow’ at Belmond Le Manoir.
Such a peaceful garden that you could happily sit and enjoy for hours.
A huge thank you to August and Suzanne for such an enjoyable day on the Raymond Blanc Gardening School course, and to Raymond Blanc who came to say hello, and all the team at Belmond Le Manoir
This was a Pr invite. There was no obligation to post this, but I wanted to share all the photos I took from the day, and having had such a lovely day, I would highly recommend the Raymond Blanc Gardening School courses, especially if you are a keen gardener like me, it really was such an inspiring day xx