English gardens itinerary

If there is one art in which the English have taught the world something, it is gardening. From the 18th century onwards, when landscapers such as Lancelot "Capability" Brown turned the parks of great houses into seemingly natural hills, lakes and groves, the English garden became a model copied everywhere. Then came herbaceous borders, outdoor "garden rooms", Victorian glasshouses and, more recently, the great domes of Eden. In England gardening is a national passion, almost a religion, and hundreds of historic gardens are open to the public.

This eight-day itinerary gathers some of the most famous, from London to Cornwall: Kew Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Vita Sackville-West's white garden at Sissinghurst, the exuberant borders of Great Dixter, the ideal landscape of Stourhead, the rooms of Hidcote in the Cotswolds and finally the lost jungle of Heligan and the biomes of Eden. It is a slow trip by car, through villages, tea rooms and nurseries where it is hard not to buy something.

A short history of the English garden

Until the 17th century English gardens followed Italian and French models, with geometric hedges, symmetrical beds and fountains. In the 18th century came a revolution: the landscape garden, which imitated nature with rolling lawns, lakes with curving shores, clumps of trees and classical temples scattered as in a painting by Claude Lorrain. William Kent, Capability Brown and Humphry Repton redesigned hundreds of parks. The 19th century brought iron-and-glass conservatories and exotic plants collected by plant hunters across the empire. In the 20th century, with Gertrude Jekyll and the Arts and Crafts movement, came the garden "rooms" and herbaceous borders that we now associate with the quintessential English garden.

Day 1: Kew Gardens and Chelsea

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in south-west London and reached by the District Line, are the world's most important botanic garden and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tens of thousands of different plants grow across 120 hectares. Don't miss the Palm House, the great Victorian glasshouse shaped like an upturned hull with its tropical palms, the Temperate House, the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world, the treetop walkway and the Great Pagoda of 1762. You need a whole day, or at least six hours.

If you still have energy, head back into town for the Chelsea Physic Garden, a walled garden of 1673 founded to study medicinal plants, small and full of charm. At the end of May Chelsea hosts the Chelsea Flower Show, the world's most famous gardening show.

Where to stay: in London.

Day 2: Sissinghurst

Pick up a car and drive into Kent (about an hour and a half), the "Garden of England". Sissinghurst Castle was bought in ruins in 1930 by the writer Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson, who created here one of the world's best-loved gardens: a series of outdoor rooms, each with a theme and colour, between pink brick walls and yew hedges. The most famous is the White Garden, with white, silver and green flowers that glow at dusk. Climb the Elizabethan tower where Vita had her study to see the layout of the gardens and the Kent countryside from above. The garden belongs to the National Trust.

Where to stay: in a Kent or East Sussex village, for two nights.

Day 3: Great Dixter and the gardens of Sussex

Great Dixter, in the village of Northiam, is the timber-framed medieval house where Christopher Lloyd, one of the most influential gardeners of the 20th century, lived. His garden is the opposite of tidy perfection: bold colours combined fearlessly, self-seeding plants, the exuberant Long Border from June to September, meadows left to flower and a nursery where you can buy plants. In the afternoon choose between Nymans, a romantic garden around the ruins of a house, and Wakehurst, Kew's country garden, home of the Millennium Seed Bank. If you prefer the sea, head down to the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters.

Day 4: Wisley and on to Stourhead

Head up into Surrey for RHS Garden Wisley, the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society, with a large modern glasshouse, model vegetable gardens, mixed borders and collections of heritage fruit: it is where British gardeners go to learn. In the afternoon drive west into Wiltshire (about two hours), with a possible stop in Salisbury.

Where to stay: near Stourhead, for one night.

Day 5: Stourhead

Early in the morning, before the groups arrive, walk the lake circuit at Stourhead, the most celebrated landscape garden of the 18th century. It was created by Henry Hoare, a banker, as an ideal journey through Virgil's Aeneid: you pass from the nymph's grotto to the Pantheon, from the Palladian bridge to the Temple of Apollo, with views opening at every bend like paintings. In autumn the maples and beeches turn the lake red and gold. In the afternoon drive up to the Cotswolds (about an hour and a half).

Where to stay: in Chipping Campden or a village in the Cotswolds, for one night.

Day 6: Hidcote and Kiftsgate

National Trust Hidcote Manor Garden was created from 1907 by Lawrence Johnston, an American with a passion for botany, and is the model for every 20th-century garden of "rooms". Hornbeam and yew hedges divide the garden into different spaces: the red borders, the white garden, the stilt garden of pleached hornbeams, the fuchsia garden, the theatre lawn. Directly opposite, the private garden of Kiftsgate Court is famous for its roses, including the giant rambling rose that bears its name.

In the afternoon set off for Cornwall, a long drive (about four hours), with a possible stop in Bath.

Where to stay: in Mevagissey or around St Austell, for two nights.

Day 7: the Lost Gardens of Heligan

The Lost Gardens of Heligan are a story straight out of a novel. For centuries they were one of Cornwall's great gardens, but after the First World War, when many of the gardeners went to the front and never returned, they were abandoned and swallowed by brambles. In 1990 they were rediscovered and brought back to life: today you can visit the Victorian productive gardens with their pineapple pits, the Italian garden, the Jungle, a subtropical valley of tree ferns and bamboo, and the Mud Maid, a giant sculpture of a sleeping woman made of earth and plants.

Day 8: the Eden Project

The Eden Project, opened in 2001 in a former china clay pit, is one of the world's most famous environmental projects. Two enormous biomes, domes made of transparent hexagonal cushions, house a tropical rainforest, the largest indoor rainforest in the world, with a waterfall and a treetop walkway, and a Mediterranean biome with olives, citrus and vines. Outside, the gardens tell the story of the plants we use every day, from tea to cotton.

From Cornwall return to London by train from St Austell or by car (about four and a half hours), or fly from Newquay Airport.

How much it costs

To save money: with National Trust membership, or the overseas visitor pass, entry to Sissinghurst, Stourhead, Hidcote, Nymans and hundreds of other gardens is free; Royal Horticultural Society membership gives access to Wisley and many partner gardens. Eden Project tickets bought online in advance cost less.

Practical information

• What's in flower: April for daffodils and magnolias, May for azaleas and rhododendrons, June and July for roses and herbaceous borders, September for dahlias and autumn colour.
• Private gardens: through the National Garden Scheme hundreds of private gardens open a few days a year for charity; the calendar is on its website.
• Booking: Sissinghurst and Great Dixter may use timed entry on summer weekends; the Chelsea Flower Show sells out months ahead.
• Nurseries: almost every garden has a nursery, but plant health rules apply to taking plants abroad: check before you buy.
• Documents: passport and ETA, see documents and ETA.

Variations

• In the north: Chatsworth, with its great fountain and Capability Brown landscape, and the Alnwick Garden, with its poison garden.
• In Wales: Bodnant Garden, with its laburnum arch in flower at the end of May.
• Near Oxford: the park of Blenheim Palace, Capability Brown's masterpiece.

What to read before you go

To understand the English garden, Vita Sackville-West's garden writings are still a delight to read, as are Christopher Lloyd's books. For the history, a good history of the English garden. Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel The Secret Garden is perfect to read with children before Heligan.

Final tips

• Pace: one great garden a day, two at most; enjoy tea in the garden tea rooms, they are part of the experience.
• Light: arrive at opening time or stay until closing: the low light of morning and evening is the photographers' light.
• A tip: at Sissinghurst stay in the White Garden until the last half hour, when the white flowers seem to light up as the rest of the garden fades into dusk.

See also our other UK itineraries.

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