Sansoucci Park, Potsdam, Germany

This summer, my husband and I visited England, Prague, and Germany.  Wayne, as a non-gardener, was very patient as I dragged him from one stunning garden site to the next.  I was so impressed by the size of the public spaces in Europe.  For all the huge population, they make it a priority to offer the public huge squares, beautifully designed and maintained gardens, and vast forests.

One of those spaces was Sansoucci Park, in Potsdam, eastern Germany.  Friedrich the Great's amazing 18th-century palace, reminiscent of the grandeur of Versailles, is surrounded by a magnificent 600-acre park.  The gardens were so big, the pictures I took just can't capture the full effect. 

The annual borders, which snaked around and through the lawns, were a mix of colours and heights.  Seems like a confusing combination, but as a whole they painted a whimsical, joyful picture. The lesson:  don't worry so much about coordinating and matching colours.  Flowers are happy to party together. 

Notice the razor sharp lines of the white gravel borders

Another mixed border, this time with sunflowers.

The centre of the sunflowers were cut out to keep the plants small.

Gomphrena adds hot pink to the mix

A tall fountain splashes in a huge reflecting pond at the bottom of tiers of grapevines.  At the top is Friederich's palace.

Intense blue annual delphinium is much smaller than its perennial cousin

a fat bumble bee on a sunflower