Thursday 29 March 2012

Petersham Nurseries

Favourite Trendy Garden Centre



The very rustic Petersham Nurseries





London is surrounded by garden centres, restaurants and cafes but this is the trendiest one I know. It is full of celebrities and the super rich of London and lots of foreign tourists. I love it too but am surprised by its success.




The lovely overpriced plants



The tables and chairs and garden wares are all old, mismatched and rusty, most of the furniture has seen better days and realistically belongs at the tip, the greenhouses are old and tumbled down and the plants and food are all overpriced.  BUT ... and this is a BIG BUT ... the restaurant has a Michelin Star and needs to be booked months in advance, the cafe serves the most delicious snacks and cakes and superb coffees and teas, and the plants are amazing, and the whole experience is full of delight and character.




Beautiful settings for beautiful plants - I want this orchid £40!

Rustic garden wares




Petersham is nestled alongside The Thames about two miles outside central Richmond town, and almost opposite the wide open spaces of Richmond Park. It is surprisingly rural given that it is so close to central London and is surrounded by watermeadows and fields full of cattle and horses. The walk from Richmond to Petersham is delightful - especially with Petersham Nurseries to visit at the end of it. Come with me and take a look  ...


The walk begins at the car park at Richmond Upon Thames riverside

A view to the right to a river crossing
A view to the left to Richmond town bridge

It is still fairly quiet but will get very busy later
The birds are noisy especially the ducks
It was nice to see a crane
The pleasure boat waiting for customers
Now the water meadows begin
You can just see the tips of boats on the river
It is hard to believe we are so close to London

Lovely rural footpath to the nurseries

The building behind the horses is the Royal Star And Garter Home
where all the poppies have been made for years by disabled service personal

And here we are at the nursery
Some cycled from town but we walked the two miles from the car
First stop the cafe
The cakes are tempting me
The jams and preserves are all amazing
The snack menu looks tempting
And the lunch menu looks interesting
Even the drinks menu looks good
After dithering we settle on coffee and cake for me and just coffee for him
We collect some iced water
Admire the scenery
Coffee and carrot, chocolate, and coconut cake which he mostly ate!
And this is where we sat in the sun
And this was the view
This is the entrance to the Michelin Star restaurant
Another view of the restaurant
Old clay pots in the shop
Isn't it just amazing?
Another view of cafe seating
This really is a nursery - but it is so much more

Before I finish this post I want to explain that blogger is really playing up and I just cannot get it to post my photos in a consecutive order - they are just going where they choose and so have given up. I know there are already plenty of pics but some of the better ones just will not post! Hope you enjoy this rather badly organised post anyway. It really was a lovely walk in the sun followed by a lovely walk back and a delicious lunch in Richmond.

11 comments:

  1. Wow ... how charming! I would be in heaven at that nursery. Did you end up with the orchid? Thanks for taking us along with you. This is my favorite post of yours so far (of course :-).

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  2. Lovely photos no matter what order!
    Looks like a fab reason for a walk!

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  3. What a beautiful walk! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. What a lovely way to lend a sunny day! I had problems with loading photos too, I choose them, and ask it to add them to the post, but it ignores me, and I haveto try several times just to get them to appear. Such is life, I enjoyed your photos even if ou thought they were out of order!

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  5. (yay, have you taken off the verification code?n that will halve the time it takes to comment, LOL)

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  6. I have been to Petersham nurseries once and loved it, really must go back again!

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  7. Hi,
    Lovely day out thank you for sharing with us.

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  8. Yummy! Lunch on you then if we all drop round?

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  9. I've heard about this place. Would like to go sometime. Lovely photos.

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  10. Wow all lovely pictures Annabelle and loads of inspirationx

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  11. Hope you enjoy your new vintage car. Really made me laugh. Love the skirt. Look forward to seeing it on you.

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