This Rocky island crowned by a medieval church and castle was another of my West Country garden visits – or rather ir wasn’t. Access to the gardens was restricted to certain days during the summer (as a a conservation measure) and yes, we chose one of the closed days! So my visit was confined to aerial views from castle ramparts, glimpses through gates and over hedges. Still, I managed to get a good idea of what the gardens are like and I’ve tried to convey this in the photo montage below.
The island – a ‘twin’ with Mont St. Michel in Normandy on the other side of the English Channel – has some buildings dating from the 12th century. It’s sub-tropical Gardens feature exotic plants clinging to steep granite cliffs and terraces laid out with a mixture of formal and informal borders. These terraces are tiered close to the rocky water’s edge.
I witnessed an ‘abseiling gardener’ carrying out some ‘extreme strimming’ on the grassy slopes!
Plants that are natives of Mexico, the Canary Islands and South Africa thrive in the mild micro-climate created by the sun-warmed cliffs. As we found in many other parts of West Cornwall plants like Agapanthus, Fuchsia, Crocosmia ‘Montbretia’ and Hydrangea thrive here as well as along road – sides and more modest domestic gardens in the area.
I will revisit at some point to get the ‘up close and personal’ experience of actually being in the gardens, but from the views I managed they do seem mightily impressive.
Further information:
St. Michael’s Mount Garden Itinerary
Wikipedia- St. Michael’s Mount
Old School Gardener
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and others on this blog, why not comment and join others by signing up for automatic updates via email (see side bar, above right ) or through an RSS feed (see top of page)?
Old School Garden 
Yep, great pics, as with all the West Country Gardens series. But.. can you have too much Agapanthus? It seems to be a a bit of a West Country cliche. Mind you, I’d like to grow it here, but it seemed a bit delicate for Cheshire.
Hi Old Nick
Thanks for visiting the site! I know what you mean about Agapanthus- that, Crocosmia ‘Montbretia’ and Hydrangeas were all growing like wild flowers in Cornwall, as you know. I think they are all lovely plants, though and the fact that we tend to grow fewer of them in our hardier climate makes them special- even after seeing so many in the warm, moist West! You can grow them in your area, just go for the deciduous varieties or be prepared to mulch/protect the more tender evergreen types over winter. Here’s a link on growing them you might find useful http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=60
🙂
Thanks for the link, OSG. I think lack of winter protection, lack of full sun, not feeding enough and too much cold and damp may have had something to do with the failure of my Agapanthus! Fortunately, we have Crocosmia all over the place, it loves it here – including the amazing Crocosmia Lucifer – in danger of becoming the cliche of my garden.
Old Nick
Thanks ON
Your list of ‘didn’t do’ is a trifle pessimistic! Cold damp is what is generally, mainly to blame for a no show on Agapanthus!
‘Lucifer’ is a classic. There are also some other lovely varieties with yellow/orange flowers and bronze foliage, so you could add a bit of variety to what seems to be a winner in your garden!
Great collection of pictures!!
Thanks!