Flowers! Flowers Everywhere!

I wish more U.S. buildings looked liked this!

No blog about England would be complete without at least a mention of its gardens.. Everywhere I went there were flowers - professionally crafted beds, small pots clustered in front of townhouses, or growing wild along the highways. Obviously, the most flowers I saw in one place was at the fabulous Eden Project which I posted about earlier, but there were also fabulous gardens in the parks at London and Bath. Of course the flowers weren't just limited to the parks - there was even a pub in London whose storefront was completely covered in flowers! Embercombe's gardens were filled with flowers along with vegetables and herbs and many small towns and cities like Sidmouth and Falmouth splashed colour around their narrow streets with hanging baskets and planters. Some of these coastal villages also had quite a few palm trees, which are not something you usually associate with England.

Part of the botanical gardens near Reed Hall

Some of the most fabulous flowers and trees that I saw however, were right on the University of Exeter's campus. I was never more than a few yards from a tree, it seemed. I may have mentioned this statistic earlier, but Exeter has the highest tree to student ratio in the UK, which was a fun fact the student ambassadors were often fond of sharing. Exeter's campus is also widely considered to be the most beautiful campus in the UK, above even Oxford and Cambridge, and it is very easy to see why. I spent an entire afternoon wandering its botanical gardens by myself, utterly entranced by the trees, fountains, and flowers that I saw. The architecture in this part of the campus is especially beautiful as well. At least half a dozen ornate staircases wind around the gardens by Reed Hall, itself a gorgeous structure. There are plenty of benches to sit upon along the way, so you can take in the beauty around you whilst studying or simply resting.

Here unicorn, unicorn...

One of my favorite spots was a small clearing surrounded by tall, beautiful trees. In the center of this miniature glade was a single tiny tree. The way the shadows fell at the particular moment I came upon this spot made the little tree look as though it was bathed in a singular solar spotlight. It was very special - almost magical. In all honesty, I would have only been mildly surprised if a unicorn had walked out of the trees at that moment.

There are two large fountains behind Reed Hall and the first one I stumbled across was where I beheld another special moment. I saw a perfect little rainbow reflected in the soft spray of water. I stood there for a full two or three minutes, just absolutely mesmerized by it.

There were other wonders to discover around the university as well. The trees on campus, especially in the school's botanical gardens, are often massive things, with wild tangled branches and sometimes multiple trunks. One tree I saw had no less than a dozen trunks sprouting from the same base. I had never seen anything like that the U.S., not even in the Smoky Mountains which boasts an incredibly diverse biosphere of plantlife.


In the main section of campus, where the Forum (student center) and many of the academic buildings were located, there were still many flowers, trees, shrubs, fountains, and ponds to gaze at. I found myself constantly clutching my camera, even on mundane trips to class in the morning, because I was never sure if I'd see a new flower or grove of trees that I had missed before.

The funny thing is, I don't even particularly like flowers. I don't know anything about them at all, except that they're actually giant plant sex organs (thanks fifth grade science class!) and they produce pollen which I'm allergic to. Also bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds like them for their nectar (speaking of bees, the UK's bumblebees are better than U.S. bumblebees - they're larger, fuzzier, and yellow-er). Aside from that, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to flowers and I'm absolute rubbish at identifying them (I am a bit better with trees, thanks to my dad). I don't grow them because I know I'll probably kill them and I've never found them particularly inspiring or romantic (except for the time my boyfriend gave me roses, but that was less the actual roses and more the gesture and the fact that he drove an hour and a half to surprise me for Valentine's Day. Thank you Isaac!)

So, having said that, my time in the UK has definitely boosted my appreciation for flowers and their beauty. We have beautiful gardens in the U.S. and our fair share of flower enthusiasts (the annual Philadelphia Flower Show is a great showcase of this, and interestingly enough their theme for 2013 was British) but somehow the feelings I experienced when looking at flowers in England were simply different - and better. Perhaps this was because there were more flowers in the UK and a much greater variety - I saw the craziest colours and petal shapes there - or perhaps it was because the gardens seemed to be laid out and cultivated with more care than in the U.S. I don't know what it was exactly, but aside from perhaps the Philadelphia Flower Shower, I had never marveled or appreciated gardens more than I did when I was in England.

Tune in next time for a post about food in the UK! There will be tasty pictures =)

In the meantime, please enjoy more not-so-tasty, but lovely pictures of flowers and trees! You can click on all the photos in this blog to enlarge them (something I just discovered literally an hour ago). Also if anyone would like to help me identify the plants in these pictures, don't hesitate to leave a comment!

More gorgeous shots of Exeter's gardens

I adored the shape of this tree

One of the ponds at Exeter. You can see a fountain in the distance.

More Exeter!

Reed Hall at Exeter

This was taken at the Eden Project. No idea what kind of flower it is.

This flower reminds me of a sunset. Also taken at Eden Project.

More Eden Project goodness!

Gardens outside of Mediterranean Biome at Eden Project

Pretty...

This tropical-looking flower was taken in the Rainforest biome in Eden.

Bizarre, but cool-looking just the same. Taken at Eden.

These look kind of like lillies, but I have no idea. Taken outside of the Rainforest Biome at Eden.