Flowers 'blooming' marvellous in Tresco's Abbey Gardens
- Published
The Isles of Scilly may have taken a bit of a battering in the recent spate of Atlantic storms, but Tresco's Abbey Gardens are blooming .
Gardeners have counted more than 250 species in flower in the gardens.
Plants from more than 80 countries thrive in Abbey Gardens - including proteas from South Africa.
Mike Nelhams is the curator of the gardens, which were created by Augustus Smith when he was appointed the Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly by the Duchy of Cornwall in 1834.
Four succeeding generations of Smith's descendants continued to develop the gardens, although the great storm of 1987 and hurricane-force winds in 1990 caused a huge plant loss there.
The annual count, carried out by Mr Nelhams with head gardener Andrew Lawson and garden students, revealed 255 flowering species - 25 more than last year.
Tresco Estate said the "blooming spectacle" was unseen anywhere else in the country at this time of year and was more reminiscent of a garden in full spring bloom.
During the flower count, photographer Emily Whitfield-Wicks also captured an endangered red squirrel - one of 25 specially flown over to Tresco as part of a breeding experiment.
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