8th June: the Wiggly Tree
During the “Rhododendron Walk” we were shown the layered oriental plane tree which has been nicknamed the “wiggly tree” for obvious reasons. Somehow I’d missed it before. I was on watch at NCI Stone Point for 12:00, so I decided to go to Exbury Gardens for the 10am opening to check that I could find it again.
It seems people have decided that the rhododendron season is over because at first it was like having the gardens to oneself. Wandering alone through the gardens was an uplifting experience. The late spring means that there were still lots of rhododendrons in flower, but I concentrated more at looking at the trees.
The wiggly tree is in Home Wood, an area where there are various spectacular trees which are so easily missed if concentrating on the flowering plants. In particular there is a very high eucalyptus tree and some Sequoia “Wellingtonia” pines.