We are in landing in heathrow May 23 and leaving from there June4, main event Chelsea flower show. As many London sights and museums as we can see in a few days - leaving about 6-7 days for GARDENS!
Last in London in 1964. Afraid to drive wrong side of road. Please advise what gardens easily reached as day or overnight trips from London via public transport. Also hope to see Bath and Stonehenge.
The comments on the UK forum have been so helpful - thank you!

We enjoyed Kew gardens outside of London. You can take the metro or boat there and back. Allow at least 1/2 a day. We also really enjoyed Hidcote Gardens in Chipping Campden but I do not think public transport goes there.

Maybe you can take the train to the area and then rent a car for driving around there. Driving on the other side of the road is actually pretty easy. It helps if you have another front seat passenger to gently remind you at each corner which lane to get in to. Two sets of eyes work better than one.

We stayed at a lovely B&B in Chipping Campden http://www.bramleyhouse.co.uk/ Jane and David were wonderful hosts and the breakfasts were fantastic. It is very easy to get around to the other small towns if you have a car. No need to drive in big cities at all.

You've got three possible strategies.

1. Limit yourself to urban gardens. Hundreds of elaborate, publicly accessible ones in London (Kew is a working botanical museum, of immense interest to those keen on individual plants or the history of botany, but of close to negligible interest to anyone interested in how to manage, or just looking at, the design of, gardens): good listing at www.ngs.org.uk. Outside London, the Oxford and Cambridge colleges represent Britain's densest concentration of elaborate, publicly accessible gardens easily reached by public transport from London.

2. Spend a small fortune hiring a driver. Outside London, Oxford and Cambridge, getting to most publicly accessible gardens by public transport requires immense time investment. From a London base, you'll take most of a day getting to and from, say, Knole then find yourself with at most just one other garden a few miles away. THe NGS site might add a few extra pickings, but <b> depending 100% on public transport for gardens outside London, Oxford and Cambridge means you're getting perliously little garden-viewing bang for your transatlantic crossing buck </b>

3. Confront your absurd wimpishness. Is this kind of "oh, poor little me, I'm such a useless worrywort?" the attitude that built your nation? What HAS gone wrong with America?

Millions of Britons get into their cars every year and drive to countries where they don't just drive on the wrong side but use funny measurements and write their roadsigns in filthy Foreign. Do any of us ever whine about it? Of course not.
Have you really got less moral fibre than us effete Limeys?

The problem you have is pretty well spelled out in flanner's post/ City gardens are no problem -- at all. But the glorious gardens in the countryside -- are <i>in the countryside</i>. Sure you could get to a few by public transport --but it will take a lot of arranging/planning and you will be hard pressed to hit more than one a day.

If you can buck yourselves up to driving - you can see as many gardens as you want. 3 or 4 a day is easy in some areas --like in Ken/East Sussex: Hever/Charwell/Penshurst Place are all w/i a few miles of each other --easy peasy to do in one day by car (and not rushing at all). But by public transport -- one tops, and you'd waste even a lot of that time.

Same w/ Sissinghurst/Scotney Castle, and any number of other nearby gardens.

In the Cotswolds, Hidcote Manor is very near several other lovely gardens -- easy to do 2 or 3 in a day - by car.

RHS Wisley would be a must IMO. Reachable by bus but not a quick journey. The nearest train station is 4 or 5 miles away.

If money is no object - you could hire a driver/guide -- but it would cost a fortune.

Driving in the countryside is not difficult-- it is the cities you'd want to avoid. But in the cities,the public transport takes care of things.

Is it feasible to visit Eton by public transportation? Not far from the college is the beautiful Saville Garden.

"<i>Eton by public transportation?</i>"

Eton is directly across the river from Windsor so it is easy by train from London.

But the Saville Garden isn't in Eton - it is out in the Great Park, quite a distance from Eton.

Thank you for all your replies, especially flanner. BTW those millions of Brits driving their cars to foreign countries get to do it frequently since every time they cross the border they get to practice. We have to cross the ocean to try it. But renting a car in a nearby city sounds like the way to go. So- is Bath the city near many gardens where we could get a car rental or would you suggest another? seems like we should limit it to southern England to maximize the time availabe. More research to do. Thanks again for all the help.

I think you'll find these two websites of great help.

http://www.britainexpress.com/Where_...s/Gardens1.htm

http://www.ngs.org.uk/

You mentioned Stonehenge also. Not a difficult drive from Bath.

Stourhead, another beautiful garden, is, if I recall correctly, not terribly far north of Stonehenge.

We'd never driven on the left in 1998. We arrived at Heathrow after an overnight flight, and took the pre-reserved National Express bus to Bath. Can't remember the exact name of their wonderful buses, but someone on here will know.

Next morning, refreshed, we set out from Bath in our rental car and detoured to Stonehenge before driving all the way to Tintagel (2nd detour) then to St. Ives that evening. On a bank holiday weekend even! Heard we were lucky not to have 20 mile tailbacks.

Another website is visitbritain.com. I think that's where I looked and ended up with more garden info in the mail than I could visit in a lifetime.

"<i>BTW those millions of Brits driving their cars to foreign countries get to do it frequently since every time they cross the border they get to practice. We have to cross the ocean to try it.</i>"

I think you may be a bit confused - just a bit anyway

The only borders an Englishman can drive across are to Wales and Scotland (and vice versa) and they all drive on the same side of the road. To get to the opposite side of the road they have to cross either over or under water - true, the Channel is a bit narrower than the Atlantic - but it isn't just 'crossing a border'.

Hi rochgal98,
I haven't been, but am hitting Chiswick House and Gardens in my trip (in addition to Kew). The gardens at Chiswick House have an extraordinary history as well.
I hope to get to the Garden Museum as well.
http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/
Have a good time!

To reach the famous Saville Gardens in the Windsor Great Park by public transit I took the train to Victoria Water station and walked about a mile or so from there - first to Vriginia Water, an artificial lake that evoked Virginia in its planners I guess and around the lake are follies, including a re-created ancient Roman-like ruins. Very intriguing - then follow signs past a tall Toten Pole from Canada to the gardens themselves. But it would be a long long slog there from Windsor/Eton and it seems no direct buses, etc. though not sure. I did walk from the gardens down to Windsor but it is a several mile hike really.

Stourhead is really special, with its lake, follies, and specimen trees.

Captain William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty is buried at teh Garden Museum.

"Bligh died in Bond Street, London on 6 December 1817 and was buried in a family plot at St. Mary's, Lambeth (This church is now the Garden Museum). His tomb, notable for its use of Coade stone, is topped by a breadfruit."

There are a number of tours sponsored by the museum that might be just the thing for you, rochgal98. Check the website.

My husband and I did hire a private driver to take us from
London to Penshurst, Hever and Sissinghurst in one very long day. This was about five years ago and I think it cost $500. I don't think I would pay that again but it was such a great day. Definitely don't miss Sissinghurst!!

Last year my husband & I rented a cottage in the Cotswolds for a week in Hook Norton. Each day we would visit a garden. We joined the National Trust before we left Australia which gave us free entry into their properties. We saw Hidcote, West Green House, Upton House and Stowe. You must have a car to do this.
On other trips we have been to some of the other recommended gardens such as Sissinghurst, Chartwell, Knole, Penshurst, Batemans, Wakehurst Place. We loved them all.
We have been to Chelsea Flower show twice - once in 1980 & again in 2004. Fantastic experience. We have also been to Hampton Court Flower show, which I think is in Late June or July. It is on the web.
Hope you enjoy your trip and look forward to a trip report.

The Saville Gardens mentioned above are an easy and great day trip for the OP and his/her stated goal - and when I did this same trip - not to see the gardens per se but Virginia Water and walk thru the Windsor Great Park to Windsor itself - I found that just from the Virginia Water train station - the walk down the main road to the Virginia Water part of the Great Windsor Park went thru an incredibly wealthy area - palatial estate like houses the likes I had never seen in Britain - so this makes for an interesting walk of about a mile thru a really really rich area.

We didn't spend a lot of time visiting gardens, but I'll second Underhill's recommendation of Stourhead. If you saw the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, Stourhead is used for Lady Catherine's grounds at Rosings.

While I didn't care for the house, Blenheim Palace near Oxford has lovely gardens as well.

If you click on my screen name, you can read our UK trip report, which includes a link to our Picasa photo album.

Lee Ann

Many years ago in Eugene I thought we had tall rhododendrohns--until I went to Stourhead! Wow!

However, my favorite garden was Sissinghurst--I think because of the architectural details, brick, towers, etc, mixed in.