Ardkinglas Ladies Garden - A must see. Visit the normally private Ladies Garden

Ardkinglas Ladies Garden - A must see. Visit the normally private Ladies Garden

14th - 25th May | 10.00 am to 5.00pm

Magnificent Ghent and Rustica flore pleno Azaleas at Ardkinglas
Visit the normally private Ladies Garden at Ardkinglas Estate at Cairndow to view the flowering of the Ghent and Rustica flore pleno Azaleas.
In 1914 because of the outbreak of the First World War a number of Belgian refugees arrived in Britain. Several thousand of them found their way to Newcastle where John HB Noble (1865-1938) lived and worked. He put some of them up on his estate at Sandhoe and some came with him to Ardkinglas in the summer and at Christmas. At the end of the war John came to live full time at Ardkinglas with his family and a refugee family who had connections with a nursery in Belgium. On their return home, in appreciation of the help they had received, they send a large shipment of Ghent and Rustica flore pleno Azaleas to Ardkinglas. John’s wife Amie planted these in the Ladies Garden. There is ongoing research into naming the plants.