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Thompson Road Walk (Area V)

The southern entrance to the Gardens, the Thompson Road Entrance, was originally lined with dense evergreens, notably hollies, yews, spotted and cherry laurels. This was a dark and somewhat intimidating entrance, unpopular with visitors, and much has now been cleared. Plantings are designed to make a much more colourful and welcoming entrance to the Gardens, with considerable use of ornamental grasses. Once mature, the plantings here will merge into the Prairie Area nearby, to give much colour, particularly later in the year. In the middle of this section a substantial poplar has been preserved, as it hosts the purple toothwort (Lathraea clandestina), a member of the parasitic broomrape family, on its roots.

Grasses provide winter colour

Helianthemum sp. and Miscanthus sp.

Lathraea clandestina