Breezy Knees

[johnryden]

Spent Saturday, 1st June at Breezy Knees garden and nursery in North Yorkshire. Absolutely stunning show garden of over 14 acres with over 6000 different plant species displayed. Wonderful show and somewhere to go back to again during high summer. The main business is a professional perennial nursery where you can buy some of the plants you have seen in the garden – we bought ten! Highly recommended.

Breezy Knees Gardens
& Nursery
Common Lane
Warthill
York YO19 5XS
www.breezyknees.co.uk

[NightHawk]

We used to live in the northeast of England and visited York on many occasions.

Don't recall ever going to those gardens though.  I think that name would have stuck in my mind 

The gardens look lovely.  Thank you for telling us about them John and posting the link to their web site.

[ideasguy]

That is my kind of garden to visit, John. The garden looks brilliant.
Did you take photos?
Matter of interest - did they have a plants list available for their visitors?
Were they labelled?

[johnryden]

They only started the garden in 2004 and it is incredible what they have achieved in that time!  Over 6000 different species across a range of themed areas.  It took us a whole day to explore with a lunch break in their cafe!  All the plants are very, very well labelled.  To such an extent that I kept getting information overload as I was trying to match labels to plants and take it all in.  They have decided to put all their labels at the front of each area with "front", "middle", "back", etc. on each label so you have to work hard sometimes to match the labels to the plants.  They only negative is that there is no landscape (as yet).  They bought open, flat fields and have planted very much in straight rows.  So what you get is plants, plants and more plants!  There is no plant list, but you get a map on paying your entry fee - which is £5 but well worth it.

The garden is planned as a show garden to their specialist perennial nursery which sells over 2000 different plants laid out alphabetically!  The whole thing is quite an experience but one which is really about the individual plants rather than a "garden" in the usual term.

Yes, I took photos, but lots of plants were not yet in flower so intend to go again in high summer and will take lots more then.  I could perhaps then put them all on a CD for you George, if you are interested.

Roy Lancaster did a review of the nursery in the June 2012 edition of RHS "The Garden".  I have found a pdf version of this but can't attach it as it is over the attachment limit.  The url should get you a copy. 

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/RHS-Publications/Journals/The-Garden/Past-Issues/2012-issues/June/PDFS/Jun12-Breezy-Knees

John

[ideasguy]

Ive never seen a garden quite as organised as that before John and that is actually a very clever labelling system (front, middle and back). I'm suitable impressed
From your photo, the plants are well spaced - again, I like that - plants can grow unrestricted to their full width.

The link to the pdf file is much appreciated.

And yes please, I would very much appreciate those photos on CD
I am planning to get back to working on databases for individual gardens and I'd certainly like to do that one. I will make contact with Breezy Knees to explain my projects.
Hopefully they will give permission as it will give them some free publicity
I imagine one would have to visit regularly to see ALL the plants in bloom in their different seasons. That would be exciting.

[trishs]

This place is near enough for us to make a visit one day soon, hopefully   What puts me off is that I will return with yet more plants I have no room for!

[Eric Hardy]

Unfortunately it is too far away for me, but I am sure you are in for a treat when you revisit.

Eric H

[NightHawk]

Too far for us to visit too Trish.

I'm sure you're going to be in a bit of a dilemma as to what you do, or don't, buy.

You may have to be ruthless in your garden and do some replacing 

Our philosophy is - garden real estate is precious, so if a certain plant isn't performing well ... it gets replaced 

Enjoy your future revisit (and don't forget to get some nice photos to share with us).