A quiet afternoon on a bright, clear day – I’m not sure there’s a better time to wander in a beautiful garden. RHS Hyde Hall near Chelmsford is a beautiful garden in any season, with winter being tinged with the colour from bright dogwood and early flowers like snowdrops and irises.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-001.jpg)
The dry garden at Hyde Hall is set up to demonstrate what can be achieved when you don’t get a lot of rainfall – despite being in damp old England, Essex is surprisingly dry and often escapes the rain. Agaves love arid conditions – I love their dramatic leaves and hooked barbs.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-002.jpg)
The sun was slowly dipping in the sky and casting some plants into silhouette and others into a vibrant glow – this grass was lit from behind and became almost overwhelmingly vibrant up-close.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-003.jpg)
Another plant in the dry garden, this succulent grows along the ground with thick, rubbery leaves arranged like rows of bishop’s mitres, each edge catching the sunlight.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-004.jpg)
The dry garden is full of plants with dramatic shapes – like the palm in the middle distance – or that add movement to the garden, like the tall grasses on the right that are catching the sunlight and being lit from behind. It was an unseasonably pleasant day – although the wind certainly carried a heavy chill!
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-005.jpg)
Beautiful snowdrops, a natural assurance that spring is indeed on its way and that winter – such as it’s been – is almost over.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-006.jpg)
Nature’s attempt at a feather duster? These tall sculptural grasses are really striking – especially in a season where most other deciduous plants have lost their foliage.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-007.jpg)
I really liked the texture introduced by the dirty, scratched window through which this photo was taken – the eponymous potting shed in the vegetable garden.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-008.jpg)
Grown for the bright stems in the autumn and winter, dogwood is eye-catching and bright.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-009.jpg)
This is the skeletal remains of a Physalis flower, with captive red berry still within. Eventually it will collapse and the berry will fall to the ground, to hopefully become a new plant.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/mfco/image/upload/q_auto:good/v1/mfco-content/Hyde-Hall-010.jpg)
Irises are one of my favourite flowers – I love the elegance of the petals, and the colours they tend to be. I’d never seen irises like this before – such a pale blue!
I’ve been to Hyde Hall quite a few times now – so I intend to revisit the theme of ‘the garden’ through the seasons, and with glances back into the archive – do check back in the future for more!