Gardens of Southwest England6 to 16 May 2008Download tour flyer and registration form Click here for more photographs Monday 5th May or earlier Fly to England and make your way to Bath to join the tour on Tuesday morning. Or, arrive earlier and stay the night in Bath at an additional cost. If you are arriving early, you can visit Bath Botanic Garden near the center of town or visit Prior Park with its lovely Palladian bridge, set on a hillside overlooking Bath. You may also want to tour the Roman Baths, stroll the wonderful shopping streets downtown, or book one of the many pedestrian/walking tours available.
Tuesday 6th May The tour will meet first thing in the morning in the lobby of our hotel. Today we will spend the morning visiting the grand 18th-century landscape garden of Stourhead. As described in the RHS Garden Finder, 'whatever the weather or season, Stourhead conveys a sense of majesty and harmony. Try it early on a May morning, when the air is sweet with azaleas.' At every turn, Stourhead presents the visitor with a new perspective on an immense scale, with over 100 acres! In the afternoon, we will go next door to visit Stourton House, Elizabeth Bullivant's colorful and quirky 5-acre garden filled with treasures and lovely plantings in small garden rooms. Dinner this evening has been arranged at Crowe Hall, a private Regency-style house with a beautiful garden overlooking Bath. Stay the night in BATH. Group dinner.
Wednesday 7th May Our day begins with a visit to Iford Manor, an Italianate garden a short distance from Bath. As described in the RHS Garden Finder, Iford Manor was established by Harold Peto, 'a fashionable architect with a passion for classical Italian architecture and landscaping. When Peto returned from working in France and Italy, he bought Iford to house his collections of statues and architectural marbles. He planted phillyreas, Italian cypresses and other Mediterranean plants and laid out the garden as a series of formal terraces on the steep hillside behind the house. Every detail is wonderfully photogenic.' Later we will visit another hillside garden, Milton Lodge, an Edwardian garden terraced down a slope with Wells Cathedral as a backdrop. The garden has a collection of roses set against stone walls. Across the road is an 8-acre arboretum which we may visit, time permitting. In the afternoon, we will have free time for sightseeing and shopping in Wells. For those who wish to do so, they may attend evensong at Wells Cathedral.
Stay the night in BATH. Dinner on your own.
Thursday
8th May En route to Cornwall, we will visit Hestercomb, a unique collection of three gardens spanning three centuries of garden history and design. We will take a leisurely walk through the recently rediscovered and restored Georgian Landscape Garden, 40 acres of lakes, temples, combes, and woodlands and then stroll the Victorian Terrace along the south side of the house and the Edwardian Formal Garden created by Edwin Lutyens with planting designed by Gertrude Jekyll. The Lutyens-Jekyll garden is well known for its Great Platt, with rills, pergolas, and staircases, all created with the symmetry, balance, and proportion made famous by Lutyens. This is a very photogenic garden.
Dinner and stay the night in FALMOUTH.
Friday
9th May This morning we will make a visit to Trebah, a 25-acre garden set in a long, slender ravine. The garden follows a stream, sweeping downward through a glade of giant gunnera to a secluded beach on the Helford River, where there is a small memorial to the men of the U.S. infantry division who embarked from here for the D-Day assault on Omaha Beach in Normandy in June of 1944. The garden contains a marvelous collection of woodland garden plants and trees (especially primulas, rhododendrons, and magnolias) and also contains the largest trachycarpus palm in England at over 45 feet. Be sure to walk the trails for a canopy-top view of the exotic trees filling the valley. In the afternoon, we will visit the seaside town of St. Ives for free time, sightseeing, and shopping. Beyond shopping, St. Ives also features the Tate St. Ives museum and the Barbara Hepworth museum and sculpture garden, or you can take a walk along the seaside/cliff trails.
Stay the night in FALMOUTH. Dinner on your own.
Saturday
10th May We will make our way to one of the most interesting gardens in all of England, Tresco Abbey Garden, in the Scilly Isles off the southwestern tip of England. You may wonder whether you are actually in England when you see the display of Mediterranean, sub-tropical, and southern hemisphere plants growing outside with only the protection of the abbey walls from the wind and sea. This is a garden that never suffers a frost even though, at latitude 50 degrees north, it is further north than Newfoundland, Winnipeg, Quebec and Vancouver B.C.; the Gulf Stream keeps the climate very mild indeed. To get to the garden, we will board a large helicopter from Penzance for the 30-minute trip to the Isles of Scilly. This is a garden that is not to be missed!!!
Stay the night in FALMOUTH. Dinner on your own.
Sunday
11th May The two gardens on the list today are the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. The Eden Project is a garden under glass, being described as 'the size of 30 football pitches'. The garden was built in a defunct clay pit near the town of St Austell on the southern Cornish coast. Each of the gigantic conservatories represents a climate zone, Mediterranean, South African, Rainforest, Californian, etc. Many exotic rainforest food plants grow alongside ornamentals. This is a relatively young garden (as far as English gardens go) and should be a very exciting and different kind of gardening experience. The 200 acres of Heligan have been 'rescued' since 1990 after being 'lost' for decades under growth from neglect. As described by the owners, the garden is 'a whole series of gardens within a garden, there are 5 walled gardens, each of their own particular interest.' Included in the restoration is a 22-acre section of the garden that sweeps down a valley with a large collection of tree ferns and bamboo. There should be a good display of azaleas and rhododendrons on the grounds in early May as well.
Stay the night in FALMOUTH. Dinner on your own.
Monday
12th May Today we will visit Cotehele, a 14-acre garden in a glen, at the head of which is a beehive-shaped dovecote. In addition to the dovecote, this garden features a collection of trees and palms, a National Trust gift shop and restaurant serving 'cream teas' with scones and clotted cream to die for. Next, we will spend time in the wonderful garden of Keith Wiley's, the Garden House. Keith Wiley has spoken several times to HPSO and other Pacific NW horticulture groups. He is the author of several good garden books. The garden has great views, situated on the edge of Dartmoor in a splendid setting among walled ruins. Many styles of gardening are contained within the walls; others spilling out into some newly developed adjacent areas. The South African garden is intended to replicate the spring flowering of the South African veldt. The cottage garden is a wildflower meadow; the quarry garden is a natural-style rock garden. This is a plantsman's garden with good herbaceous borders.
Dinner and stay the night in TORQUAY.
Tuesday
13th May Our first stop will be Castle Drogo, the last castle built in England, with a garden to match. The castle is 'a granite vanity which was one of Lutyen's most remarkable works'. The garden and castle sit atop a high mount on the edge of Dartmoor, protected from the wind by tightly clipped yew hedges. Next, we will visit Knightshayes. This is a large garden known for its wonderful woodland plantings and collection of trees. However, the formal gardens and walled gardens surrounding the house are very fine, too.
Stay the night in TORQUAY. Dinner on your own.
Wednesday
14th May Sticky Wicket is a garden that has been designed by the owner to be in tune with nature, attracting birds and wildlife in an increasingly naturalistic style. And yet, it is also considered to be one of the most photographed and admired of the modern gardens in England because of the 'subtlety and integrity of Pam Lewis's colour combinations'. There are four principle gardens on the 2 acres, the Frog and Bird Gardens, the Round Garden, and the White Garden. Ms. Lewis is the author of Making Wildflower Meadows and Sticky Wicket: Gardening in Tune with Nature. Chiffchaffs is another of the 'smaller' gardens (3 acres). 'Spring bulbs, herbaceous borders, shrub roses, lilies, and clematis are among its key features' along with groups of disanthus, magnolias, meconopsis, maples, and gunneras. The garden is known for its good plants displayed in a flowing design. An excellent nursery associated with the garden is attached.
Stay the night in SALISBURY. Dinner on your own.
Thursday
15th May Today we will visit Heale House Garden. 'Many would agree that Heale is the prettiest garden in southern England. It sits at the bottom of a broad, chalk valley, with the River Avon flowing through'. Included in its 8 acres are formal pools, terraces, and balustrades. On an island in the river is a Japanese garden. An old kitchen garden is surrounded by cob walls and tunnels of trained apples and pears. The garden contains a series of mixed borders planted with roses, clematis and herbaceous plants; the borders are considered to be one of the best examples of this style in England. In mid-day, we will visit the center of Salisbury where we will spend some time at the Salisbury Cathedral. In the historic museum section of the grounds, we will view the Magna Carta. Time permitting, we will have some time in Salisbury to stroll the downtown streets and visit the shops. Later in the afternoon, we will make a stop to tour Stonehenge as we make our way to our hotel in Bath.
Stay the night in BATH. This evening we will get together for a Farewell dinner.
Friday
16th May After breakfast, those returning to the U.S. will make their way to the train station for their transfer to Bristol or London.
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