Trip Report- UK Gardens in May

Old May 28th, 2017, 06:49 AM
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Trip Report- UK Gardens in May

My DH and I recently returned from a two week trip to the UK. The first week was spent in the countryside visiting gardens and the second week in London. We loosely based the trip on a Fodor’s itinerary for gardens and stately homes. We had a fabulous time. I really want to thank janisj and annhig for their invaluable advice about gardens to visit on this thread. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ice-please.cfm.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 06:51 AM
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Car Rental: I had rented a FIAT 500 1.2 or something similar from Eurocar expecting to use the insurance coverage that my credit card provides. When we got to the rental desk we inquired about a GPS and found it would be £20 per day. Hmm no we had brought our own but were unsure of accessing the UK maps but didn’t want to spend more than the car rental itself on the GPS. Then we got to the insurance and the woman said we had to sign a waiver that provided an £18,000 deductible if we didn’t take their insurance. Whoa!! So we ended up with a larger Pugeot with the GPS and the insurance for another £192. Not happy with that but it was what it was. In retrospect I should have verified with my credit card and booked a smaller car with a GPS. Also an automatic since that is what my DH was the hardest to deal with and claims he has bruises on his right hand from reaching for the shift.

Driving in the UK: Of course it is the other side of the road for us American so it was difficult for my DH. I occasionally tried to get in the driver’s seat which we laughed about.

A number of points- the GPS was worth it because it told us how to enter the roundabouts (left or right lane depending upon when exiting) of which there are about 3,000 per square mile. The speed limits are a laugh because little country roads where you need to pull over to let the oncoming traffic pass had a 60 mph limit. Traffic cameras are everywhere and the GPS kindly informed us of most of them I guess. We are waiting for the pile of tickets that the system has produced though my DH swears that he never exceeded the speed limit and rarely came close. We apologize to all those locals stuck behind us- living on Cape Cod we know what it is like. I tried my hardest not to gasp as he either drifted to the other side of the road or overcompensated to the left. I was not allowed to complain unless I had twigs in my teeth.

One suggestion-the postal codes in the UK are street specific rather than town specific as they are in the US. Eventually I replaced my list of addresses for just the postal code and if applicable the street number. Much easier than typing in the full address!
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Old May 28th, 2017, 06:52 AM
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Basic itinerary:
Oxford- 1 night
Stratford-upon-Avon- 2 nights
Salisbury- 2 nights
Tonbridge Wells-2 nights
London- 7 nights

Accomodations:
Oxford- Cotswold Lodge Hotel: very nice but the room was extremely hot!! Benefit was that there was onsite parking and breakfast was included. We just wanted somewhere relatively close to LHR for the first night.

Stratford-upon-Avon: Avonpark House – a B&B on the other side of the river, the room was nice and overlooked the garden with chickens and turkeys, we walked into town but didn’t explore it much, Breakfast and parking was also included.

Salisbury: Grasmere House- an old fashioned hotel. All the rooms were named after authors. I wanted the one next door which was the Dorothy Sayers room. I forgot who ours was named after. We had a beautiful view of Salisbury Cathedral, the rivers, lambs and horses. Parking and breakfast buffet (eh) were included.

Tonbridge Wells- Rose House- a one guest room B&B. a lovely house and couple. It was sort of like staying with friends of friends. No onsite parking but Tony came out in the pouring rain to help with the bags and show my DH where to park. Breakfast was included.FYI it is cash only which was fine with us.

London- We rented a flat for a week- https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p6497059 It was about a 10 minute walk to Earl’s Court. Very comfortable, only one minor issue was that the dryer didn’t seem to work on the combination washer/dryer. Also I decided in the future to book for the departure day since our flight was at 5pm and we had to be out at 10AM.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 06:53 AM
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Looking forward to hearing about the gardens.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 06:53 AM
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The Gardens:
We are pretty avid gardeners focusing mostly on the vegetable/fruit spectrum. I have told my DH that the rest is a life time project. We gathered ideas for what we could do with our acre and a quarter when we retire. Of course seeing these gardens 30 years and a score of volunteers would make it into a showplace. We bought a National Trust touring pass and it was well worth the money. The English are so lucky to have all these amazing places open to visit. Also we visited at a perfect time of year with a lot of plants blooming. Some peonies were blooming and others were about to pop. May return in June to see the roses bloom in some of these gardens.

Oxford- The University of Oxford Botanic Garden- A beautiful garden with a walked garden and then an open area beyond as well as a couple of greenhouses. As befits a University property there were a number of beds with the focus on teaching- we laughed at one about Gin since my father drinks martinis. (https://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/) Outside the garden is a small garden commemorating the Jewish cemetery that was taken over to create the Botanic Garden. It has hedges and roses- probably amazing in June when they all bloom!

Stratford-upon-Avon- Anne Hathaway’s House & Garden- not that Anne Hathaway- this is the home of Shakespeare’s wife’s family. The house was very interesting. We didn’t get to see much beyond the garden next to the house due to rain and a couple of bus tours of high school students. (https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/)

Drove from Stratford-Upon-Avon on a beautiful Sunday:
Hidcote Manor Gardens- First garden we saw with rooms. So amazing and beautiful. (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hidcote)
Snowshill Manor and Gardens (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sno...nor-and-garden) – The house was the focus here and boy, Charles Wade was trying to preserve everything. The volunteers were very informative. We loved the story about how Wade was arrested in the 1930s on Oxford Street in London for creating a public nuisance by wearing a full suit of medieval armor. It was the easiest way to get it home.
Kiftsgate Court Manor (http://www.kiftsgate.co.uk/home) A private home that opens their garden to the public. What a lucky family!! The grounds are beautiful with a couple of large reflecting pools.

Sudeley Castle (https://www.sudeleycastle.co.uk/) Unfortunately we toured the house before the garden and when we got to the gardens it was pouring. I loved the ruins of the banquet hall! Another private family home.

Salisbury- Mompesson House (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mompesson-house) a sweet little town garden with one of those beautiful English lawns encircled by a path and plantings. Apparently we missed Edward Heath’s garden which was in the same close around the cathedral.

Drove from Salisbury- Stourhead (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead) An amazing place!! A two mile walk around a lake with amazing trees, rhododendrons and other plantings. We didn’t tour the house but the kitchen garden was lovely. Don’t miss visiting the farm stand- wonderful English cheese and nice people.

RHS Wisley Garden (https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley) We stopped here enroute to Tonbridge Wells in the pouring rain and figured nobody would be there. We were lucky to find a parking space. Another amazing place which you could spend days touring. We found a gazebo made by training trees branches to interlace. DH became very interested in the possibilities of growing a hedge to replace some arborvitae. I used our RHS membership here.

Drove from Tonbridge Wells-
Sissinghurst Castle Garden ( https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sis...-castle-garden) This is the only place I am sorry we didn’t go into the house- well, really the tower to view the whole property. Another place with garden rooms that have amazing plants and little niches. The vegetable garden was unbelievable and we spent some time talking with one of the volunteers. The sign board said they do a no dig garden which sounded strange to us. He explained that they put down 5-6 inches of good compost every fall. Then they don’t turn the soil in the spring just dug a little hole to pop in the plants. He said it keeps the weeds down since turning the soil brings the weed seeds up to be germinated. It takes time to establish but is something we are planning on trying.

Great Dixter (https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/) The family home and garden of Christopher Lloyd was so different from the formality of Sissinghurst. I told my DH it looked like a hoarder’s garden with things kind of thrown in to take over. I overheard someone say they had visited in the summer and it was better in the spring when it was blooming.

Chartwell (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chartwell) This is Churchill’s house and as my DH said ‘It is nice to be Prime Minster!’ Lovely grounds, the kitchen garden is gorgeous enclosed by a brick wall. Must keep the critters out. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to tour the house or the studio. Next time!!

Kew Garden (http://www.kew.org/) While at Hidcote Manor a person said that we had to go to Kew Garden when in London. Another gorgeous place! The Royal Kitchen was great though we chuckled at the young man assigned to the kitchen garden who really didn’t know what the plants were. There was a little building with the most amazing lily pads!! We loved The Hive (http://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/attractions/the-hive) We missed Treetops so that and the Temperate House which is being renovated are on our ever expanding list for a return visit.

Kensington Gardens (http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens) I am not sure we got the most out of this garden and was a little disappointed. My DH was annoyed at the loud people who scared off the herons that he was trying to photograph.

Chelsea Flower Show This was a bonus to our tour of gardens. We had booked our flights and then found the show was during one of the weeks so planned to be in London. I joined the RHS to get tickets for one of the member’s afternoons. It was a crush to get in but once in it wasn’t too bad. What a fabulous show!! Made the mistake going into the Grand Pavilion because we couldn’t take home any of the plants or seeds. An amazing display of clematis and a whole bank of fuchsias though I laughed at the Burpee kiosk. We bought some garden hand tools and two different owl ornaments for the garden.

Overall we had a fabulous time at all the gardens and came home with a ton of ideas. We are thinking of working on plans over the next few years prior to retirement. Then going back the year we retire to get more information on how to make those dreams reality.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 07:22 AM
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A number of points- the GPS was worth it because it told us how to enter the roundabouts (left or right lane depending upon when exiting) of which there are about 3,000 per square mile>>

lol, AGM - have you tried driving in France? it always seems to me that there are even more of them there, or perhaps I notice them more because I'm going round them the "wrong" way.

>

double lol! there are only 3 "national" speed limits in the UK - 30 mph in built up areas, 60 mph on single carriage roads, and 70 mph on dual carriageways, including motorways. So yes, the speed limit on those tiny roads is 60; though quite often there will be a special speed limit in more built up areas, in the countryside those are for wimps.

Thanks for the summaries of the gardens you visited - to my shame there are several that I haven't yet visited so thanks for encouraging me. BTW I couldn't get your link to Snowshill to work; I hope that this one will:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sno...nor-and-garden

Also, I hope you don't mind my saying, but it's TUNbridge Wells, not TOnbridge, which is somewhere else entirely [though not that far away, confusingly]

Shame you didn't get to see the inside of Chartwell but you did at least get to see Churchill's famous brick wall, which it is reputed he built himself as therapy to relieve the strain of government. Local legend has it however, that the building firm he had working there at the time used to "tidy it up" before the mortar set, without him ever knowing.

Nice to know that you want to come back.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 07:25 AM
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Hi AGM:

I will come back to read the full report but just to let you know none of your links are working. It is because you used parentheses -- a trailing ) screws up the url. No need to do anything but post the link - extra punctuation/separation is not required.

(https://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/) should just be https://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/ and so on . . .
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Old May 28th, 2017, 07:30 AM
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One set of gardens too often missed in Oxford - though sometimes inaccessible to casual visitors - are the individual college gardens.

Especially at their best in May, but mostly managed so as to provide interest year-round.

Each of the ~40 colleges has some kind of garden. The most easily accessed impressive garden is Worcester College (free almost every day), but most are open for a late-April National Garden Scheme event and for Oxford Open Doors Weekend (usually the second weekend in Sept)

The best guide to them is Tim Richardson's and Andrew Lawson's Oxford College Gardens: £26 from Amazon UK. Sheer horti-porn.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 07:38 AM
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Here are the links sans punctuation
University of Oxford Botanic Garden https://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/
Hidcote Manor Gardens https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hidcote
Snowshill Manor https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sno...nor-and-garden
Kiftsgate Court Garden http://www.kiftsgate.co.uk/home
Sudeley Castle https://www.sudeleycastle.co.uk/
Mompesson House https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mompesson-house
Stourhead https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead
RHS Wisley https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley
Sissinghurst https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sis...-castle-garden
Great Dixter https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/
Chartwell https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chartwell
Kew Gardens http://www.kew.org/
Kensingston Gardens http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens

The Hive http://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/attractions/the-hive

janisj, I should know by now that I don't need the parentheses. I wrote it up in work and am just used to put them in.

annhig, sorry about the Tunbridge mix up. Also the reason we didn't get into Chartwell is that we were to meet a friend in London earlier than expect. Of course she then couldn't make it. Next time is what we say but there were so many places we didn't get to that I am not sure we will return.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 07:40 AM
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Oh - I was just starting to post the corrected links for you and you beat me to it!

So now I have time to actually read the TR
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Old May 28th, 2017, 07:48 AM
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Wonderful (!) -- you hit some great places. And have a long enough 'left overs' list to start planning your next trip

>>in the pouring rain and figured nobody would be there. We were lucky to find a parking space.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 07:55 AM
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janisj we were told that if the English didn't go out in the rain they would never go out.

flanneruk, we didn't have time to explore all the college gardens but will put them on the list for next time. Thanks!
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Old May 28th, 2017, 08:11 AM
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Thanks for your TR. Sounds like a great trip. I believe we may have overlapped timewise. We too ran around in the rain.

Annhig-didn't realize that about the speed limits. We were amazed at the speeds on those tiny, tiny country lanes.

Sorry about your car situation. We have almost always ended up renting thru AutoEurope and find there are never any surprises with rentals. And if you have issues after the fact, they are great to deal with. They will price match any better rate you get. (I am not employed by them!)
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Old May 28th, 2017, 09:24 AM
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great write up, I think the view of Salisbury Cathedral from the south over the water meadows is the finest view in England.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 02:30 PM
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AGM, your original links worked fine for me, and I went to each one.

Wonderful report, thank you.
Looking forward to more!
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Old May 28th, 2017, 03:35 PM
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Maybe it depends on the browser - I'm on Safari and each one went to the correct site but w/ a 404 Page Not Found error message. You could of course then navigate to the home page -- but just a good habit to leave off the parens.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 04:12 PM
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What a fantastic sounding trip. Thanks for the full and detailed report.
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Old May 28th, 2017, 10:15 PM
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>

double lol! there are only 3 "national" speed limits in the UK -


Hmmm...

The kind of cars most of us drive in the countryside these days are perfectly capable of rapid acceleration to 70, safely braking quickly and squeezing past another sensibly sized car when the road gets narrow. That's why Cinquecentos (it's spurious pedantry to call them Cinquecenti, but it does sound nicer) are so popular on our back roads.

It's also why speeding fines are such a preoccupation. There are next to no human police allocated to the Cotswolds, but speed cameras infest the area. Local speed limits are ubiquitous, with an enormous proportion of country roads having a 50 max, and 50-areas eliding almost imperceptibly into 30-areas.

There's a stringent legal requirement to pre-announce cameras and to declare local limits visibly, and that requirement is robustly enforced. But leaf profusion often restricts visibility of many signs from April to October, councils just don't have the cash to limit foliage and our twisty roads often mean drivers are looking at other things so they miss the signs anyway.

Almost all logged speeding offences involve a 3-point penalty as well as a fine, and you need only 12 points to lose your licence. It's even possible for a visitor to be driving illegally (and therefore uninsured) if they're here for a few weeks and rack up up a number of unactioned tickets.

The only solution, unfortunately, is constant awareness of your speed. However much you might think you're driving slowly, any decent modern car will get you over a limit faster than you expect.
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Old May 29th, 2017, 12:00 AM
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"The speed limits are a laugh because little country roads where you need to pull over to let the oncoming traffic pass had a 60 mph limit."

As my driving instructor used to tell me in the 70's, they are a speed limit......Not a target.
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Old May 29th, 2017, 01:40 AM
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As my driving instructor used to tell me in the 70's, they are a speed limit......Not a target.>>

same here, Hooameye, and if you actually drove at 60mph or something near to it on most of the roads round here, you'd soon end up having an over-close encounter with a cornish hedge.

Flanner is right, there are quite a few 50mph limits nationally [not many in Cornwall] and very often the signs showing the change of limit are pretty hard to spot; often the first thing you see is a repeater sign [which are smaller] leading you to wonder how long you'd been driving too fast and how many speed traps you've missed. Since avoiding my last lot of points by taking another speed awareness course [think Statler and Waldorf on Mogadon] I have taken to having my satnav plugged in but not on show, just so it warns me where the speed cameras are.
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