East Ruston Old Vicarage
The Mediterranean Garden
The Mediterranean Garden is a series of south facing terraces, each backed by the shelter of heat retaining red brick walls. Two plants in particular cause much excitement here. Firstly Echium pininana that hails from the Canary Islands. This produces its amazing towering four metre columns of blue flowers so beloved by bees. We now also have both the pink and white forms of this plant. The other The med iterranean Garden stunner here is Beschonaria yuccoides that comes from Mexico. In early summer this produces great swan-necked stems to two metres of the most stunning shrimp pink, the upper portion with pink bracts enclosing small lime-green flowers. Both of these plants are monocarpic, having grown to flowering size they flower, set seed and die. However they leave behind their legacy of seed or offsets so that over a period The terraces of the Mediterranean Garden of time these two plants form colonies so that 13 there is some blossom every year. These are joined by palms, grasses, agapanthus and a good selection of kniphofias as well as many other plants. At the heart of this garden is the pavilion that contains a series of aerial photographs of the garden.