Charlotte’s Secret Garden

House-Of-An-Art-Lover

This is ‘The House For An Art Lover’, designed by Mackintosh, in Glasgow. I visited for lunch with family and friends, we had a fabulous value two course meal which was delicious. I should have taken a photograph of the meal it was very nicely presented, the atmosphere in the dining room was lovely and it was quite busy.

Entrance-To-the-Secret-Garden

We went to walk off the gorgeous strawberry dessert and cheesecake. I spied a gate in the wall and we wandered through into this beautiful garden.  A lovely surprise in full bloom.

Hanging-Basket

I loved these vibrant colours in the hanging baskets and the lawn below was immaculate like a carpet.

In-The-Garden-02

In-The-Garden-01

I wondered if I could keep any of these type of plants on my balcony. They must be hardy to survive the harsh weather of a Glasgow winter.

My-Vertical-Garden-03

So just to prove my life isn’t all about work 😀.   I wanted to show you my new vertical garden that we bought the next day. Da Dahhh. I was telling my blog friend Koko about it and she asked me the name of the plants mmmm. I knew I should have kept those little cards, I know the bottom one is a ‘Pineapple plant’, the ones to the right were a gift and they’ve survived a couple of weeks already I think they’re called Lilies. My Mum said if I killed everything else she’d be surprised if an ivy couldn’t survive so we have one of those and a pot of chives.

Royal-Conservatoire-Of-Scotland

I love this time of year at the Conservatoire you can always get a practice room and mine this morning was fabulous. The sunshine lured me away eventually.

Morning-Practice

For a cool smoothie, a lunch time treat 😀.

Lunch-Time-Treat

62 thoughts on “Charlotte’s Secret Garden”

  4. Love the color and sunshine of the garden! Your vertical garden is splendid and I know that you will have a grand time singing to your little charges, encouraging them to grow big and strong. Have fun. 🙂

    Reply

  5. Charlotte, where do I begin? Exciting new year and so many wonderful opportunities ahead for a beautiful, talented star like you. LOVE that vertical garden and every picture is stunning. What a beautiful place to live — I need to get back there. Everything good is happening for you and I am really glad. <3

    Reply

  6. So beautiful, Charlotte! I love flowers, but I have little incentive to actually plant and care for them myself. Someday . . . And I know what you mean about taking photographs of the food; since my sister is a food blogger, often when we go to restaurants, she will cry “Stop! I need to take a picture of this first!” just as I am about to take the first bite. The other day, when we went to tea at the Savoy hotel–special sisters’ day out–I actually did take a bite of the scone before she remembered about the pictures; but she was able to rearrange the plate to where the bitten scone didn’t show. Whew!

    Best regards,

    Cate

    Reply

    1. Hahaha I love that she made you stop to get her photo. I always think ‘oh heck! That would have been a lovely photo for my blog’, after the event! I’ll let you know how the plants go.

      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. I’m already slightly obsessed prodding my fingers into the soil whenever I get home, then I was told it’s worse if they’re over watered and sat in water so I have to lift one out to check. It does feel like a garden though.

      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  12. Hi Charlotte, I used to love visiting these gardens with a great restaurant as well, I used to go with my father. The vertical garden is a great idea, and looks really good, there are many ways of doing an inside garden, such as using an old step ladder. I used to design and build gardens in my spare time. Hope you will enjoy a wonderful year, best wishes and blessings, Charles.

    Reply

      1. Have been to recitals, art exhibitions, even saw the work of Henry Moore on display at one. These huge and wonderful places need to do public events like this to get enough money to survive, even those that belong to the National trust now. Be lovely to run a set of creativity workshops from them. 🙂

  16. Fall, is the best time of the year. The garden was quite beautiful, especially the entrance. The Conservatoire looks a lot larger than expected, it is a lovely building with great windows, love the light. Your vertical garden is a delight.
    Thanks for sharing Charlotte.

    Reply

    1. There were many more flower displays I should have taken more photographs. The Conservatoire is large there is five performance spaces inside, and they have a second site about 10 minutes away for the dance studios and production students I’m proud to be a student there. Everything’s still doing well 🙂

      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  19. As gardening addict I very much approve of your vertical garden. Don’t worry when some of them die, you can just f-get something different, that the good thing with plants. Spider plants are fail-safe and look lovely against the light. Or you could add some basil. Have a great term.

    Reply

    1. Yes I like the idea of basil, parsley and mint, I nearly purchased a tiny glasshouse for about £20 to see if herbs would grow on my balcony but my parents said “let’s see how you get on with this first!”

      Thank you I’m doing some work from home so I could make an early start.

      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  20. http://www.vespa.com/ it would seem you in your pink tennis sneakers and leather coat cry out for the cinematic adventures of gal friday on her town. the pastoral family outting hinting at the twilight…PG now! 😀 saunter to the scene oh say of a snapshot about a fountain with the emergency adventure off past the sunset after gelatto.

    Reply

      1. WHAT! blank blank! you understand mom got herself a new to her machine to negotiate to and from support us lot which became a toy later which I admit i remember that cable snap that hobbled the machine from switching gears. it was orange..which of course rhymes whithnothing but perhaps a hill in England. just as silver and purple also do not rhym so image me the blind on a crime spree about the neighborhood later in second gear only put put putting up the hill of hell…oak cir south, broomfield colorado usa from Josh’s pond http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rpys927z0dc/VAZ-Qs6WJTI/AAAAAAAAJ-o/pWBzU89huaE/s1600/img_5998.jpg notice colorado usa is more like coor yellow 😉 and no one told me no about legally blind driving but admitedly then, i wasn’t and am still not a speed demon – if anything less so! but, WHAT? I’m blind and capable of 87 mph to a 180 deree flat turn which with those machine at that time was 30 mph was FAR too fast to negotiate without spinning out. I caused grey hair to my father. lots of it. come on! sell that just for men! 😛

  21. I want to visit the House for an Art Lover! It looks beautiful. And they serve strawberries and cheesecake? YUM. 🙂
    Good luck with your balcony garden. 🙂

    Reply
  22. Pingback: An NAS West Norfolk Coffee Morning | aspiblog

  23. Maybe this should have been titled “Charlotte in Wonderland”. Of course, you would have to mention the Cheshire Cat and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I’m sure if you look close they will be there.

    Reply

  24. Such a lovely relaxed-sounding post! I like your vertical garden – I’m sure all your plants will do very well. The Mackintosh house and garden looks a great place to visit.
    Best wishes, Clare

    Reply

    1. This week has been very inspiring and great fun, although my knee didn’t think so this morning, I’ll blog about it soon, I wrote about my exciting dance lesson last night but didn’t get chance to put all the photo’s together.

      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  27. I had good luck in a window location with an “Indian Rope Plant” (hoya). The blossoms smell like chocolate. I gave it about an ounce of water a day, maybe slightly less.

    Reply

  28. I adore gardens, and those photos of the garden in Glasgow look wonderful!

    As far as your own little vertical garden, the one to the upper left of the chives is a cyclamen, the two with the pink and yellow flowers are succulents called kalanchoes, the one between them is a dracaena marginata, and the lilies are calla lilies (they’re usually white like Diego Rivera is famous for painting, but you have a similar color to those I have in my garden here in Florida). I can’t see the one with the purple flowers enough to know what it is.

    Care of Cyclamen: After the blooms fade, the leaves will yellow and die. It’s not dead, but needs to rest for the winter, so stop watering it and put it in a dark place. Don’t get water on the leaves or the stems when you water it, because it could cause them to rot.

    Care of Kalanchoes: make sure to let the soil dry completely between good, deep waterings. Don’t let them stand in water. Once the flowers fade, you can force them to flower again by faking a winter. You do this by placing it in a dark room most of the day, and only bringing it out in the morning for a few hours.

    Care of Dracaena: Don’t overwater or let it stand in water. Keep it moist but not soggy. You can cut the cane to cause it to branch out, and just shove the top that you cut off into the pot next to it. It will root and create a whole new plant. The part that you cut will sprout new leaves just below where you cut it. These are some of my favorite plants! I love the Song of India variety.

    Care of Calla lilies: Once the leaves have withered (and they will), stop watering it and movie it to a dark area so it can overwinter. If you don’t, you could rot the bulbs. Put it back after about three months and begin watering again.

    Good luck with your garden! 🙂

    Reply

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