UK Rose tour June 2025
 

We had planned a rose tour for June 2023 as a follow up of the garden tour of May 2017. Unfortunately my husband ended up in the hospital. We are planning on trying again this June. I am having a hard time getting a handle of where to stay along the route. The dates are June 12-26 and we would like to find a place to stay for a few nights. Any suggestions? Here are the gardens we plan to visit. Also if you know of gardens we are missing that we should see please let me know. TIA

The Savill Garden, Surrey
Nymans, Sussex
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
Mottisfont, Hampshire
Barrington Court, Somerset
Compton Castle, Devon
Castle Drogo, Devon
RHS Garden Rosemoor, North Devon
Tyntesfield, Somerset
David Austin Rose Garden
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
Greys Court, Oxfordshire
Cliveden, Buckinghamshire

A bunch of terrific gardens for sure. But . . . that is a LOT of territory to cover in 2 weeks. Is the entire time of your trip the 12th - 26th? Including travel days? Or are those the dates you have free 'on-the-ground'?

To give you an idea just driving from say near LHR to all of those sites and back to LHR would eat up about 20 hours 'car time'. So say 3 full days worth of 'butts in seats' not counting any stops. On top of that you have listed thirteen gardens which are each about a 2 hour stop - some a little less but some quite a bit more. They are so spread out that there really isn't a place you could stay over for more than about 2 nights.

There are lots of other gardens in those areas -- just a few would include RHS Wisley, Borde Hill, and of course Queen Mary's Rose Garden in London. A few others that have fabulous roses but aren't as 'rose-centric' as some of the others would include Sissinghurst, Hever Castle and Hidcote Manor,

Give us a bit more detail re the timing. Are you arriving in the UK on 12 June or 13 June? Are flying out on 26 June? One shouldn't drive on their arrival day and the 26th is a travel day. So really only 12 or 13 days. A few of the gardens are near enough to each other that you could visit two in one day so this is possible but you will be on the go every single day.

I am not sure how much time you have in each of those areas, but if you will be close to Chipping Campden then Hidecote is simply stunning. There is also Snowshill Manor and garden and Kiftsgate. I could of spent all day at Hidecote.

I will say that we went to Rosemoor on Annhigs suggestion and loved it.

Wishing you the best time!

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/vis...swolds/hidcote
Kiftsgate Court Gardens
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/vis...nor-and-garden

Savill gardens are part of Windsor Great Park, though over the border in Surrey. You could group them with Cliveden for instance before travelling to the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire ones.

A lot depends on when you collect your car for all of this. As Janis points out you shouldn't drive on arrival after a long haul flight, so you will need to stay somewhere you can get to without driving, ten get the car the next morning. morning.
If you do your list in reverse order, with the exception of Savill gardens then you could stay somewhere convenient, pick up the car and start in Sussex and work your way round ending at Savlll gardens which is closest to LHR.
There are so many gardens you could visit, and I think you probably need to pare your current list somewhat to give yourselves time to enjoy those you do visit without feeling the need to move on to the next one too quickly, or be prepared to skip some once you are on the move. You need to think about the weather too. June can glorious, but in recent years it has been a dull, wet month, which means roses not at their best and gardens soggy underfoot.

That sounds absolutely exhausting and, in my opinion, far too much. I really think you need to cut your list down considerably.
Some of the places you mention have amazing buildings attached to them! For instance Castle Drogo is fascinating. Do you plan to visit the houses too?
One of my favourite gardens is Great Dixter - it’s definitely not a ‘rose garden’ but it’s one of England’s most famous gardens - and you can also visit Christopher Lloyd’s house which sits perfectly in the surroundings.
You’ll also need some Plan Bs if the weather should be foul.