jsmith

Sally, it is nice to see someone mention gardens other than the usual suspects. I will check in with two recommendations we have visited and enjoyed, both in Gloucestershire:

Westbury Court Garden is famous for its unique Dutch Water Garden - it's about 8 miles SW of Gloucester

Westonbirt is not strictly a garden. It is the National Arboretum and has the finest collection of trees and shrubs in Britain. We visited in the spring on a misty day so weren't able to experience it to its fullest but autumn is the best when the trees are full of color. About 12 miles SW of Cirencester.

One other feature of

http://www.gardens-guide.com/

that I forgot to mention is the ability to get a list of gardens by location. A very useful tool for planning your own itinerary.

hopingtotravel

Oldie, if you're still here: any more Scottish gardens that should be seen? Especially in western Scotland?

flanneruk

Anyone who likes gardens and is on the Oxford-Cotswold trail this summer really ought to vist the (free) New Flowering exhibition at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, on till September 11.

It juxtaposes Oxford's extraordinary collections of flower and plant paintings from the past 1,000 years with recent paintings by modern artists from all over the world(botanical painting, apparently, is a current boom industry).

Unsurprisingly, the museum's shop has also assembled a range of garden-related merchandise which make terific presents.

jsmith

If you haven't already done so. you might visit this site from today's New York Times:

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/07/0...gdom%2FEngland