Maymont Park, Part Two

The ascent to the Italian garden includes an intricate stairway made of stone. Looking to the left as you move along the steps, your view is of the top of the waterfall.

 Once you get to the top of the stairs, you travel along another stone pathway with an ancient wall that follow your steps on the left side.

 A few  more stairs up and you come to this beautiful urn with a vine trying hard to reach the top (jasmine?).

 When you enter the Italian garden there is a large rotunda to rest in the shade.  It must get very hot up here in the summer months!

 The Italian garden is no where near the size of the Japanese garden.  The land is flat and you can view the entire garden with one look.  Here, the focus is on bloom color where as in the Japanese garden, the focus was on foliage color and texture.  The Italian garden would be nice to see again in another month or so.  Many of the flowers were newly planted and still quite small, not filling in their space.  Annuals, like geraniums and lantana are widely used.  The arbor on the right ran the entire way down the garden.

 My favorite combination in this garden was the use of nepeta and this coral colored rose.  The nepeta closely resembled lavender and I had to get quite close to realize it wasn't lavender.

 Walking out of the Italian garden and back toward the mansion, the sidewalk is lined with very old magnolia trees. Their heavy branches jutted out at interested angles and would make for great climbing trees. 

 A view of the mansion on the way back from the gardens.

 I loved to see this tree fenced off with the sign "Honey Bees Please Stay Clear".  There were hundreds on the tree.  It was awesome!

We were at Maymont for about four hours and only made it through the Japanese garden, Italian garden and the mansion tour.  There were a few smaller gardens, like a fragrance garden and an herb garden that we didn't have time to explore.  We didn't make it to the farm or the nature conservancy either.  The park is very spread out so allow ample time and energy to get from one area to the other.  I look forward to going back again this summer to see how the gardens change throughout the growing season.