It was a dull, cloudy and misty morning, the temperature was hovering around 4c as we set off for our first visit to Harlow Carr of the year. We had an uneventful drive up the A1, the traffic was flowing nicely both northbound as well as southbound.  The roads as usual were busy coming into Harrogate and the Otley road was quite congested due to some pipe laying work which had rendered the road one way.

It was 11.00am when we arrived at the car park for the gardens, I was quite surprised as how much snow was still lingering in several areas of the car park, on mentioning this to one of the reception staff they told me that they had had over twelve inches of snow fall on Sunday 5^th January, which closed the gardens and carpark for a number of days whilst they cleared the car park and paths around the gardens.

It was a quick pop into Bettys for a takeaway coffee before we headed through the reception area and into the gardens. Considering how full the carparks looked The gardens themselves didn’t appear to be too busy, I presume a lot of the visitors had come to dine at Betty’s. We followed our usual route down the stone steps into the garden, stopping at the railings to admire the view over to the wooden summerhouse adjacent to the streamside. It was a cold and misty morning here at the gardens, very similar to home, the sun was well hidden behind the low grey cloud which covered the gardens.

As is usual this time of year the gardens were looking quite bare with just the odd splash of colour here and there. The first thing to catch our eye was the beautiful Witch Hazel tree which was in flower, its vibrant yellow florets standing out against the grey background. Clusters of large and small Snowdrops filled the borders with additional colour, their tiny, white bell-shaped florets swaying gently in the light morning breeze. As we continued our walk we stopped to admire the flowering Viburnum, the sweet-scented pink florets bursting out in little clusters of colours along the stems of the shrub. Borders of orange and red coloured Dogwood provided additional colour with the occasional Silver Birch tree standing proud, their white, silvery bark contrasting very effectively with the colours of the smaller Dogwoods. A little further along clusters of white and pink flowering Hellebore or Christmas Rose brough some additional colour to the borders. Over to our right, the Queen Mothers lake looked still and tranquil, a pair of Mallard ducks were busily feeding, dipping down headfirst into the water with their tails just bobbing above the water line. From here it is just a short walk to the Edwardian Sunken garden, a short terrace of small conifers lined the path under the shelter to the sunken garden. All the shrubs around the pond area had been cut back to ground level so there wasn’t a great deal to catch your attention. We continued following the path down the slope to the Thaliana bridge, significant landscaping was being carried out in this area including reshaping the footpath and creating additional borders, one of the workers was busily scraping back the earth with a small tracked version of a JCB, a dozen or so young trees were laid flat on the ground, their root balls tightly covered in hessian, waiting to be replanted, it will be quite exciting to see how this area develops over the coming months. We made our way over the bridge stopping for a few moments to remember the reflections on the water from our last visit to the gardens in mid-December during the nighttime Glow event. We continued our walk along the streamside trail, again several flowering Witch Hazel trees added some colour along with clumps of flowering Snowdrops and Hellebores. On reaching the Old Bath House we headed over to Betty’s Tea house café for brunch. By this time the weather had started to deteriorate slightly, and a low drizzle hung in the air, fortunately we were well wrapped up and under cover, so the damp weather didn’t really affect us. A little Robin came and sat on the chair next to me, probably hoping for a piece of my sandwich, though more likely to get out of the wet drizzle. After our refreshment we continued our walk along the Streamside trail passing Geoffrey Smith memorial stone, before heading up the slope and through the Sandstone Rock Garden. I always enjoy this part of the garden, be it the huge sandstone rocks, the water features or the planting. Pockets of Snowdrops filled the borders, the shrub Skimmia added more colour with its red/purple fruit adding colour along with the Crassula rupestris, often called buttons on a string. From here it is a short walk to the Garden Centre, though before we headed into there, we continued along the main path to have a look in the Alpine House, a pot of Hoop petticoat Daffodils looked beautiful in full flower, standing four inches in height. Narcissus Romieuxx also were flowering nicely, this delicate early flowering daffodil originated in the Atlas mountain region of Morocco and looked quite at home in this part of North Yorkshire. After leaving the greenhouse we headed through the Sub Tropical area, I have to say that I have never visited this part of the garden before, probably because it is tucked away behind the Alpine House, and the winter months are not probably the best time of year to visit but I was well impressed with the variety of species, I can imagine it will look completely different during the warmer months. On leaving the Sub Tropical garden we headed back to the garden centre for a browse before leaving and the journey home.