Dulwich Park - A Queens Park but Not a Royal Park (Part 2)

Dulwich Park and the whole area is full of history, from The Domesday Book which is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086 for William the Conqueror, to the seizure of the whole of Dulwich, and then the sale of it by King Henry VIII in 1538 for £609, a bargain I think! Then there is all that has happened since, till this year and the Park's 120th Anniversary. I will start with some wild fowl in or on the 'Boardwalk' area. It has been built with one area for plants to encourage wildlife. Here you see a single Mallard Duck and a perfect his and hers photo!

A very common visitor or full time resident to Britain is the Canada Goose! Then we see a rather wet Coot which my camera picked up on.

To the side of the 'Boardwalk", which is a walkover area across the side of the lake, there is a whole area planted with plants specifically for wildlife. Drooping down is a wonderful weeping willow, Salix babylonica. There is also a lot of variegated flag iris or Iris pseudocarpus  'Variegata'.

I love Marsh Marigolds or Caltha palustris and there were plenty in flower on the margins. The ducks also tend to like this area and here are a couple of bachelor Drakes.

The picture on the right shows the area and the 'Boardwalk' and the other picture show the little inlets in the lake which are so ideal for wildlife!

The far bank of the lake even had a Rhododendron in flower and the inside bank of the lake had some nice plantings of hardy Geraniums.

 This spreading euphorbia seems to be everywhere and the Gardeners complain that it takes forever to dead head it.  It is as many Euphorbias are, toxic. The purple clump is purple variegated Japanese knotweed. Which I am assured is non invasive and does not breed with the normal Japanese knotweed. It certainly looks invasive to me.

I love finding things like this; although not showy like the mass of Rhododendrons and Azalesa, this simple Vinca major cheered me up! Then a Crambe cordifolia is fine for me.

Going past the lake with the 'Boardwalk', I came across the Boating lake. How lovely to have an area for a bit of rowing. Over this lovely bridge with the sound of running water was a paperbark maple with a wonderful Japanese maple behind it.

Looking over the bridge I saw a water garden and another bridge with wisteria on it at the far end. After walking round to this bridge, here is what I saw of the water garden as the water comes off the boating lake.

This is looking back at the bridge with Wisteria on it; it has a fantastic weeping willow on the other side of it. It reminded me that I had taken a photo of another willow I had seen as well. There is certainly no shortage of them here. The Bridleway (sand track) around the Park for Horses and Ponies can be clearly seen here.

As I continued walking I came across another avenue with a Park gate. The avenues are wide as they were of course originally meant for horse drawn carriages. Personally I could not think of a nicer place to just sit and relax or read a book. This is both sides of the same avenue.

I spotted this beautiful weeping silver birch which really did look lovely against the blue cedar and the Azaleas. But then I had to look twice and then go and check, it was a Brewers spruce or Picea breweriana. What was that doing there?  I have not seen one for a long time.

 A huge orange flash dazzled me and I had walked into an Azalea. To my surprise there were a lot of Heuchera micrantha 'Palace Purple' planted in clumps which is very effective, but not with orange!

This Park is full of surprises for everyone; I have never seen Photinia 'Red Robin' planted in front of Rhododendrons. The wonderful Azaleas were reaching skywards.

The Park has a wildlife area and lovely well written signs with pictures of butterflies, birds, bats, etc. on them but it was in these overgrown dells left on purpose, that the wildlife was teeming! The bird song in here was glorious.

This made me chuckle for there is an Aesculus hippocastanum or Horse Chestnut (Conker Tree or Buckeye), growing out of the Rhododendrons. Here is a picture of the lower branches of a Horse Chestnut in flower in the Park, they get to about 80 feet high so I hope the gardeners notice this little one and move it.

I had been looking for some white Rhododendrons that had not been frost damaged and at last I found some; then I found a blue Ceanothus (Californian lilac) just coming out. All we needed was some red, and life would be perfect.

For all you parents or grandparents, or in my case, uncles, out there, this is a brilliant idea: secure well designed and safe play area for the children. Nicely contained with fencing that keeps the errant tearaways from running off, watched over by Park staff at hand if you need them. It holds proper lovely soft matting to stop the little grazes (that was the fun bit when I was young) and an inside centre with events as well.  It's ideal if it rains, the cost to use all of this, well, it is free! What a view as well and if they are not tired out (you will be), there is still the wildfowl and the plants to see. Also there is the lovely cafe to have light bite or a picnic, what could be better? The Park has a 'Dry Garden' which was built to show off what could be planted in dry or drought areas, I wanted to go and see it but unfortunately it started to rain! This leads me on to another good idea, at the top of one of the Park junctions is this shelter, very handy to get out of the rain shower or volcanic ash.

Thank you for being with me on on this magical tour of a wonderful place. I do hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing and taking photos of it. There is a Victorian fun fair for the Bank Holiday weekend which is a must go to event. As all men are big childern at heart, would anyone care to join me for a ride on this Victorian carousel?

However if you would like to go on a Virtual Tour of the park done on video and should work on your browser please CLICK HERE!

Other links: The Pavillion Cafe web site: CLICK HERE!

Dulwich Park with map: CLICK HERE!

Dulwich Parks friends: CLICK HERE!

Dulwich Picture Gallery: CLICK HERE!

Part 1 on the Park: CLICK HERE!

To Dulwich Park for giving the Nation, then Queen Mary, our people and visitiors from all over the world so much pleasure for 120 years, may you have many more.

To the Staff and Friends of the Park thank you for all your hard work and the quality shows, it is appreciated.

Thank you again and my kindest regards.

Neil

For Nancy.