I had another busy day today – mostly doing admin, and cleaning up my computer to try to get it running a little better. I know I’m going to have to make a decision about its replacement pretty soon, but I’d rather it wasn’t this week.
But it was another glorious Indian summer day, and I managed to get up to Hidcote for an hour at lunch time, to walk through the ever-inspiring garden and take some photos. I came across this rather extraordinary one in the Plant House; I’m afraid I can’t tell you what it is, because in homage to Hidcote’s heyday as a private garden the National Trust have a policy of not labelling the plants, but it’s large (the flower head is about the size of half a large grapefruit), and presumably tender as they keep it under glass. If you recognise it, please do let me know what it’s called!
EDIT: Ingeborg has just told me that this is a bromeliad – Fascicularia bicolor. There is an article about how to grow it here. Thank you Inge!