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Quote of the day:
“O, that lone flower recalled to me
My happy childhood’s hours
When bluebells seemed like fairy gifts
A prize among the flowers”
– Anne Brontë
Forage in May for:
Hawthorn, Lime leaves, Red Clover, Ox-eye Daisy, Garlic Mustard, Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum), Dandelions
Wordless Wednesday – The beauty of oak stumps and sunshine
This entry was posted in autumn, Wimpole Hall and tagged Gardening, Gardens, Oak stumps, Photography, Stumpery. Bookmark the permalink.
Lovely, is it the stumpery at Ickworth?
In fact it is Wimpole’s stumpery, which is (mostly) at the Home Farm end of the Plant Hunter’s Walk through the Pleasure Grounds. I’ve still not seen Ickworth’s revamped one.
I want to know about the stumps that look like whales’ tails. I have one in my woods.
Is it Cedar. I know that no one bothered to place it upside down.??
These are oak stumps, cleared by the foresters, from the nearby woods. These tree trunks are indeed planted upside down in the ground (using some heavy machinery) to create the Victorians favourite kind of place to grow/display ferns i.e. a romantic/gothic stumpery. I prefer to think that it looks like a dinosaurs’ grave yard, but whales are good too!
Well there goes my mystery. Thanks. Beautiful post.
I am working on a fern display. I keep dragging old stumps out of the woods.
Sounds great. Keep going girl! I anticipate pictures and stories.
The last stump was really heavy. I will need help getting it to the garden. I am glad no one can see me doing all these stunts. I stay dirty and fall down.
I’ve never heard of a stumpery… interesting use of what would have been left to rot.
Exactly and it makes a great wildlife sanctuary and celebrates the beauty of all things wood.
I love that word: stumpery. We have them here, but don’t use that wonderfully poetic word! Your photos are beautiful!
Thanks. Apparently the term was first coined for the pile of dead trees developed into a feature at Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire in 1850s, moving on from its previous description as the ‘Rustic Root Garden’.
It looks lovely in the autumn sunshine. I have seen the one at Highgrove, not that I am name dropping! They can be quite dark atmospheric places I think.
Drop away! The pictures I’ve seen of Highgrove make it look another order of magnitude in size. I would like to see it some day.