Friends of The Savill Garden

As we approach forty years of The Friends of The Savill Garden, it is very tempting to reminisce about past visits to the Garden and the wider Windsor Great Park.

We gathered on what was the 17th annual January Winter Welly Walk in morning sunshine. Five (5) groups of around fifty (50) Friends experienced scents and colour of The Savill Garden, and each group chose their two ‘plants of the day’. Here are some of them, amongst the many wonders in the Garden that day.

Des gave a fabulous talk about winter habitats on the Windsor Estate. It was lovely to be able to sit back and enjoy a glass of something warming whilst we looked at his beautiful wintry photographs of Windsor Great Park.

Spring is perhaps the most anticipated season for those living in temperate climates such as the UK, because the season brings with it the new growth of plants and the birth of young animals.

One of the finest evergreen winter flowering shrubs in the Gardens of Windsor and an important plant that represents one of our National Collections is the genus Mahonia.

In the winter newsletter, John Anderson, Keeper of the Gardens highlighted the camellia as a welcome sight through the winter months. Here we detail the history of the camellia and the specimens you can find in The Savill Garden.

A group of almost fifty Friends gathered in front of The Savill Garden Visitor Centre on a cold but sunny morning to go on the annual autumn walk.

Around one hundred Friends and their guests gathered at the York Club on Tuesday, October 10 to hear Paul Sedgwick, Deputy Ranger & Managing Director of Windsor & Rural, give us an update on what has been happening on the Windsor Estate over the past year.   

Although this year, we seem to have had to wait a very long time for summer to give way to autumn, with the leaves staying on the trees a long way into October, our thoughts will soon be turning to the next season, winter.

There is light at the end of the tunnel especially when it comes to planning and planting for winter colour and interest.  

2024 will mark 40 years since the creation of The Friends of The Savill Garden in 1984.

Forty-four (44) of The Friends arrived at Chenies Manor House with a drizzle coming steadily down. Quite a few of the group patiently queued up to come through the main gates and drove around the Elizabethan house to find the parking area - a spectacular way to see the house and part of the garden.