Tulips at noon

This being notice of a visit to the tulips of Hampton Court a week or so ago, with this notice having commenced pretty much at noon.

A cool start to the day, although it became warm and sunny later. Light jacket, light sweater, scarf, sun hat and sun glasses turned out to be spot on. Just right for bench life in the sun.

There were tubs of tulips spaced out along the drive - with the tulips themselves looking well enough - but I thought the tubs were a lapse of garden design: the tubs were too widely spaced in too long a drive, in which they were a bit lost.

Furthermore, the scaffolding wrap, which had been advertised as emulating, after a fashion, the original height of the main gatehouse, seemed to have stalled. Had there been some hitch? Maybe the Health & Safety people had not been sufficiently consulted? No proper risk register in place? See reference 1 for previous notice.

Once inside, plenty of other tulips to be seen. Some past, some passing and plenty at their best.

Some sprinkled about some larger beds. Some masses, often a central rectangle of one or two varieties with a contrasting border.. Some mixed plantings, as snapped above. A generally high standard of both tulips and their planting.

A noisy infant enlivened my wait for my bacon bap, it being our custom that BH does the shopping on occasions of this sort. Bacon bap pretty good, if a little over-provided on the bacon front. There did not seem to be any current buns, hot-cross or otherwise, or scones - which I might have taken otherwise.

On through the wilderness, where the daffodils were largely done, and from there to the laburnum arch, not quite in full swing.

In fact, a little patchy, with various repair works underway. Works which will take a while to come to fruition. I guess you have to be a proper gardener to know how to manage these things, when you can get by with regular maintenance and when you need to dig up and start over.

I associate to my father's cordon apples, planted in the late 1950s, which were rather neglected in the 1970s and never really recovered - at which point I dare say I would probably have done better in the 1980s to start over, rather than attempting to nurse them back to health. As it turned out, we were  not there for that long, so perhaps nursing was the right answer for us after all, as I dare say the next people just ripped them all out anyway. At least we got some apples: Amongst which I remember the James Grieve, the Blenheim Orange and Ellison's Orange, this last the one with the distinctive aniseed taste. For which see reference 2, from towards the end of allotment life.

A laburnum flower.

Followed by a fairly lengthy spot of sun-lit bench life. I may have dozed off.

Some rather splendid tulips in a bit of what was left of the once memorable herbaceous border, running along the eastern side of the palace.

We often wonder whether border needs to lie fallow under grass for a bit, or whether the grass just reflects the lack of gardeners - or perhaps the money to pay them - although I believe that, as at Wisley and Polesden Lacey, there are volunteers as well as payroll gardeners.

The Long Water, which gmaps reveals to be getting on for a kilometre long. The slightly carelessly edited section of the Palace website which might have said how long, did not, but it did tell me about the Longford River, an aqueduct dug for Charles II to fetch in water from the River Colne at Longford. From which the name of Long Water is derived, with just reinforcement from its considerable length.

The notice of apple maintenance above reminds me that the then Duke of Edinburgh made the management decision to cut down the ailing avenues of trees down both sides of the water and start over. Which looks well enough now - but I believe that there was a lot of discussion at the time.

The Longford River, as snapped from Wikipedia. The Long Water will probably be visible bottom right if you click to enlarge.

With the original now mixed up with Heathrow Airport and the Duke of Northumberland's River - part of which runs across the southern boundary of what is now the airport.

Before arriving at Bushy Park, and from thence down to the Palace. I wonder if the water was used for domestic purposes - perhaps including drinking - as well as garden purposes?

A small section of my conversation with Gemini about the Longford River and its uses. The answer appears to be that it was fit for washing up and washing floors, but not for drinking. Drinking water was piped from Kingston in something called the Coombe Conduit, for which see reference 4 - from which I learn that the lead pipes involved - some miles of them - were maybe three inches external diameter and two inches internal. A great deal of lead - which Gemini adds up to between 200 and 300 tons of the stuff. Perhaps I will check his sums later.

He has the length of the Long Water at 1,200 metres.

Back on the day in question, the south side of the Long Water was the closing section of a pink clad walk for Breast Cancer, the same pink, as it happens, as is favoured by Dignity in Dying (to be reported on shortly).

They were entertained on arrival by a band of drummers, complete with a very energetic lady drum major. I thought maybe no drum majorette, but yes steel drums, BH favoured something Japanese.

Some of the tulips in Fountain Court. The tubs worked rather better here.

The 'wrap' from the inside.

All in all a fine visit. With plenty to do next time we are in the area.

Onto to our usual cafe for tea and sandwiches. In my case, I was pleased to find that they could do an empty baguette to go with my overfilled ham sandwich, thus making two sandwiches. The ham might look a bit chunky, but I thought it was rather good.

Out to find a Tesla car next but one to ours, all sealed up and containing a dog. This being mid-afternoon on what had been a warm day. The lady in the car next to ours was rather concerned about it, but there was nothing we could do, short of forcing a door or a window, and the dog in question was alert enough and did not appear to be distressed. So we let it be.

PS 1: it so happens that on this very day, I had been reading about the display of dress and jewels of both the men and the women of the court of Henry VIII, that is to say very much the time of the Palace. With the King himself leading the way. It seems that this display was at a pitch which would be considered rather gross these days; we like our conspicuous consumption to be a bit more tasteful, the example of POTUS over the pond notwithstanding.

I seem to remember from my school days that the crime of Cardinal Wolsey, the builder of the Tudor part of the Palace, was to go too far, with his display rivalling that of the King.

From where I associate to the King having a wrestling match with the French King. A serious match which must have stretched diplomatic protocol a bit. I liked Gemini's phrase about not leaving alpha males together for too long. POTUS and his chum Musk spring to mind.

PS 2: I was interested to see the piece at reference 7. The sort of eventuality which is very likely to get legal given the amount of money involved. Good for the lawyers, bad for the customers of John Lewis who will end up footing a chunk of their bill. At least it is not one for the government, who have plenty enough on their plate as it is.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/03/wilderness.html.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2007/09/googled-out.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longford_River.

Reference 4: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/coombe-conduit/history/

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-swerve.html.

Reference 6: Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare – Stephen Greenblatt – 1980.

Reference 7: London landlord sues John Lewis in click-and-collect dispute: Owner of Brent Cross shopping centre argues that 47-year-old lease entitles it to a cut of John Lewis’s online sales - Philip Stafford, Alistair Gray, Financial Times - 2026.