A Glade Of Rich Colour

As spring arrives, Pollard Park has burst out in blossom with the park’s rhododendron glade next to come into flower.

The Glennie Rhododendron Dell was officially opened in 1989, thanks to the donation of a large number of mature plants from the Glennie family property ‘Glenrose’ in Blicks Lane, off Old Renwick Road.

‘Glenrose’, with its extensive plantings of rhododendrons, azaleas, roses and hollyhocks, hosted many weddings and concerts and featured in the first garden tour in Marlborough.

Alexander Glennie was one of Marlborough’s early orchardists and his son William Glennie imported large numbers of rhododendrons from Europe in the 1950s. William’s daughter Christabel Tomes arranged for many of the mature shrubs, including William’s own hybrids, to be moved to their Pollard Park setting.

More than half a century on, the ‘Glenrose’ rhododendrons – and a large number of azaleas - are flourishing.