Visit To Beth Chatto's Early November

We spent last week in West Wales and as we were driving back the autumn colours were spectacular. Field Maples (Acer campestre) had gone a uniform butter yellow and lined the fields in abundance. As we were driving out of Bath after a short stop the angle of the sun was just right to pick out lines of yellow over the dale, bathing the whole in a river of gold. Sadly there wasn’t time to stoop and dig out the cameras, ands that vision will remain with me as one of the photo opportunities that got away.

The sudden advancement of the season panicked me into going to Beth Chatto’s a couple of days later, especially as the hedgerows and trees in Essex seem to be losing their leaves with unseemly haste. I was frightened I would miss the show.

I have mentioned the Liquidambar and the Ginko biloba before, but there are other trees at Beth Chatto’s which are superb for autumn colour. One in particular is a delight, and every year I have missed it. In previous years people say things like, “You should have been here last week/a couple of days ago/yesterday,” as I mournfully gaze at the golden needles strewn below. This year it was still almost unshed, though I suspect that if I go back in a couple if days time I would be able to say, “Ah, you should have been here….”




It was one of those frustrating days when the light was all wrong but I still took photographs because tomorrow all the leaves might have fallen. I would love to have had a blue sky behind the trees. Instead there was brightness which led to so much flare I had to change to the telephoto lens.






The Gingko has gone that lovely buttery yellow.






The Liquidambar hasn’t turned yet, which will, naturally, mean I shall have to go back soon. Such a hardship. (Snigger.)



I was frustrated by the light; the silver birch wasn’t as silver as the last visit because the sun was behind the clouds. I want to capture it silver and gold.




Sometimes decay can be very beautiful.




As for the rest of the garden, these photos hardly need words.







I have put in a couple of shots which are similar to ones I posted before to show how these wonderful gardens progress through the seasons.