Isabella Plantation

Today we went to see the azaleas in bloom at Isabella Plantation, in Richmond Park. Every year in late April it is filled with visitors all coming to see the incredible display of azaleas in many different colours - even blue!

In 1771, it was shown on maps as Isabella Slade . Isabella may have been the wife or daughter of a member of staff. But it is more likely to be a corruption of the word isabel, which was used as far back as the 15th century to mean dingy or greyish yellow - the colour of the soil in this part of the park. In 1831, Lord Sidmouth, the park deputy ranger, fenced off 17ha (42 acres) of the Isabella Slade as an area of woodland to keep the park's deer out . He planted oak, beech and sweet chestnut trees as a crop for timber and gave the area the name it has today. The present garden of clearings, ponds and streams was established from the 1950s onwards. The park superintendent, George Thomson,  removed Rhododendron ponticum (which was non-native and invasive) from large areas and replaced it with other rhododendron species. He established evergreen Kurume Azaleas around the Still Pond and planted other exotic shrub and tree species.

They are at their best at the moment and it was well worth seeing them today. I have added some extras