Gardens in England

Old Jan 8th, 2019, 02:45 PM
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Gardens in England

Late spring or early fall travel....need your favorites and drive time and places to stay.
Prefer character hotels, can occasionally splurge, we will drive it ourselves unless driver//guide is the way to go.
Help me make an itinerary. I have suggestions but need to plot them on a map!
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Old Jan 8th, 2019, 03:02 PM
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There are gardens in absolutely every corner of the country. You need to narrow things down a bit - and decide how long you have whether it will be in Spring or Fall. Not sure what you mean by 'drive time' -- that would entirely depend on which gardens you include.

Two areas with a huge concentration of gardens are Kent/East Sussex (Kent is called the 'Garden of England) and Devon/Cornwall. Just visiting some of the gardens in the SE (Mostly in Kent/East Sussex but also paces like Wisley in Surrey) could fill 2 to 3 weeks . . .

But honestly - there are hundreds of visit-worthy gardens all over. There are also many gardens right IN London. I used to give a couple of talks re "Travel to the Gardens of England" and "Gardens on the British Isles" which also included Scotland and Wales.

Look for a copy of the 'Yellow Book' which give the details of the National Gardens Scheme. That would help you narrow things down a bit.

https://www.ngs.org.uk/product/pre-o...handbook-2018/
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Old Jan 8th, 2019, 04:02 PM
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It may seem counter-intuitive but you may want to consider adding a criteria or 2 to your planning process. As mentioned there are gardens everywhere, including those not considered specifically "garden" destinations. Grounds of historic houses are often every bit, if not more, interesting as those designated "garden", because of the history of both house & garden, the planners & builders of both over the centuries. I travel to England to see houses & gardens so will zero in on a locale, rather than specific individual sites, then research what is within a chosen radius of my accommodation of choice. Or sometimes a linear plan if I'm walking for a number of days and want to see properties not far off the path.

Besides the "Yellow Book" I suggest you look on the National Trust website where you'll find many 2 for 1 locations, houses with gardens.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/
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Old Jan 8th, 2019, 09:25 PM
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To illustrate my suggestions for devising an itinerary for yourself, this is a link to the descriptions of my last trip devoted to house & garden visits.

https://www.travelgumbo.com/blog/portmoresby-in-england


The first group includes the ones I described as a "linear" plan, visited as I walked. The second group is largely centered in the northern Cotswolds where I stayed very near the famous duo, Hidcote & Kiftsgate Court Gardens, and drove from there around the district while staying in that 1 location. If you find the place names on a map you'll see how many are in proximity to one another, done as day trips, walking or driving, from a single accommodation in Hidcote Boyce near Chipping Campden.

Last edited by MmePerdu; Jan 8th, 2019 at 09:28 PM.
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Old Jan 9th, 2019, 01:33 AM
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My favorites; Harlow Carr, Oxford Botanical and Lost Garden of Heligan
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Old Jan 12th, 2019, 01:51 PM
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If you decide on the Spring, Cornwall would be the obvious destination because our gardens are at their peak then, and you could fill at least a week with garden visits, from Heligan to Trelissick to Trengwaiton to the Eden Project. [that's only a few of them]. If it's an autumn trip, then I would go for Kent /Sussex, where there are arboretums and other gardens with terrific trees and autumn colour, which frankly we don't get much of.

That would be my main criterion.
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