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Great Gardens of Southern England - Horticulture historical and contemporary
8
days
from
US$5,930
Book today with a deposit from
US$890
19th - 26th May 2027
Tour highlights
- Four and a half centuries of English garden-making, from Tudor walled gardens to contemporary design.
- Late May, with azaleas in flower and borders at their freshest.
- 14 gardens including Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Nymans, Hever and Hampton Court’s restored Privy Garden.
- At several gardens, the gardeners who tend them show us round.
- Two nights near Winchester, five in Tunbridge Wells.
Late May is one of the finest moments in the English garden year. At Exbury the rhododendrons and azaleas are in full colour, borders at Great Dixter and Sissinghurst are filling out, and the first roses are opening. Southern England can claim one of the richest concentrations of great gardens anywhere. A mild climate, varied terrain, centuries of botanical learning and, not least, considerable private wealth have produced gardens of every period and temperament, all within easy reach of one another across Hampshire, Sussex and Kent.
Some of the oldest survive almost intact. At Penshurst Place the walled gardens laid out in the 1560s were never swept away in favour of a fashionable landscape park. At Hampton Court, horticultural archaeology has returned the Privy Garden to its appearance in 1701. At Scotney Castle, William Sawrey Gilpin, theorist of the Picturesque, composed medieval ruin, quarry and water into a Romantic scene.
The Victorians and Edwardians hunted plants across the world. Exbury and Borde Hill hold remarkable collections of rhododendrons, azaleas and rarities. Around 1900 the mood turned towards informality and native planting, often contained by walls or hedges to create a sequence of garden “rooms”. Sissinghurst is the most celebrated example; Nymans and Arundel are others.
Behind each garden are remarkable people: Lionel de Rothschild at Exbury, the German-born Ludwig Messel at Nymans, the American William Waldorf Astor at Hever, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson at Sissinghurst, and Christopher Lloyd at Great Dixter. Many of the gardens are still in private hands, some with the families who made them; the Stephenson Clarkes have been at Borde Hill since 1893. Others are tended by dedicated trusts, and four are in the care of the National Trust. Several continue to commission new work, from the Bannermans’ Collector Earl’s Garden at Arundel (2008) to Robin Williams’s rose garden at Borde Hill.
With no more than two gardens a day, there is time to linger. At several, the gardeners who tend them share their knowledge first-hand. Louisa Allen, horticulturist and garden designer, accompanies the group throughout, drawing the gardens together..
Itinerary
The coach leaves central London at 10.00am. Hampton Court Palace is a peerless early-Tudor, late-Stuart royal residence which is surrounded by some exceptional historical gardens: the formal canals dating to 1670, the Privy Garden recreated in its 1701 iteration with evergreen cones and spheres and seasonal flowers, colourful sunken gardens with ponds, extensive rose garden, even larger kitchen garden and the world’s largest vine. Continue to the outskirts of Winchester where two nights are spent.
Two gardens today with collections of international importance. Drive through the New Forest to Exbury Gardens, the creation from 1919 of Lionel Rothschild, ‘banker by hobby but gardener by profession’. The scale is astonishing, with 200 acres of rare and magnificent trees, but it is for the rhododendrons and azaleas that it is famous. The walled gardens of Mottisfont Abbey shelter the national collection of Old English roses, for which Graham Stuart Thomas scoured the country in the decades after the War.
Medieval and Victorian, Arundel Castle is an impressive backdrop to lawns, sylvan groves and formal gardens. The Collector Earl’s Garden designed in 2008 by Isabel and Julien Bannerman is a witty interpretation of a what might have been created by the 17th-cent. connoisseur Earl, with waterworks and Italianate architecture. Parham House is a privately owned Elizabethan mansion with horticultural delights of the highest order in a sequence of walled gardens. First of five nights in Tunbridge Wells.
In Charleston Farmhouse almost every surface is decorated by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, whose country residence it was. The garden was redesigned in 1918 by their close friend and art critic, Roger Fry. The Stephenson Clarke family has lived at Borde Hill since 1893 and continues to tend and develop an exquisite series of garden rooms, periodically bringing in leading designers. Beguilingly beautiful rose garden by Robin Williams, well named Paradise Walk, peaceful Italian Garden, dells with exotica, all loosely linked by lawns and woodland walks.
At Scotney Castle, the theorist of the Picturesque, William Sawrey Gilpin, melded the medieval ruins, Jacobean mansion, quarry, pond and planting into a truly Romantic vision. Largely the creation of garden writer Christopher Lloyd, Great Dixter is a bewitchingly original and abundant horticultural phenomenon. The shrill juxtapositions of hues are particularly memorable and the density of planting is extraordinary, bulging to block paths and rising to overtop the tallest visitor.
Hever Castle was home to two of Henry VIII’s wives, while the gardens were made for William Waldorf Astor from 1903. The scale is breathtaking: a thousand men laboured for four years to create a 35-acre lake, 4-acre Italian Garden, topiary, valley garden, Tudor garden and to plant numerous noble trees. Dating to 1560, the enchanting series of walled gardens at Penshurst Place have great historical importance, while the modern iteration has a variety of characters and moods.
Not particularly large, Pashley Manor nevertheless has rich variety of terrain, layout and planting, with inspired juxtapositions of flowers and colours. An utter delight. Created by Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West after 1930, Sissinghurst is the most famous of all English gardens. Embodying ‘the strictest formality of design with the maximum informality of planting’, brick walls and yew hedges create a series of sharply differentiated compartments, none more lovely (or renowned) than the White Garden.
Ludwig Messel bought Nymans in 1890 and with head gardener James Comber created one of the great gardens of the world. Wonder follows wonder, surprise succeeds surprise, from the pinetum to the rose garden, sumptuous borders of annuals to rock and heath gardens. The tour finishes before 3.00pm at Gatwick Airport Railway Station from where there are frequent trains to several stations in London (30–40 mins) and elsewhere.
Note that appointments for some visits cannot be confirmed until January 2027.
Expert speaker
Louisa Allen
Louisa Allen is a horticulturist and garden designer. She worked for the City of London Corporation from 2012-2017, managing 200 modern and historic green spaces in the Square Mile, where notable recent projects included commissioning Professor Nigel Dunnett’s landmark planting scheme on the Barbican Estate, re-landscaping St Dunstan in the East and renovating Postman’s Park. She completed a Masters in Horticulture with the Royal Horticultural Society in 2016. Her particular interest is urban environments and the impact these can have on well-being and engaging communities.
Practicalities
In 2026: Two sharing: US$5,560. Single occupancy: US$6,830.
In 2027: Price, per person. Two sharing: US$5,930. Single occupancy: US$6,980.
Hotel accommodation as described below; travel by private coach; all breakfasts and five dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admission charges; all tips, all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager; tours with the site gardener at some places.
Lainston House Hotel, near Winchester: set in gardens and 63 acres of parkland on the outskirts of Winchester, the décor of the public areas – bar, lounge, restaurant – maintain a country house feel. Hotel du Vin, Tunbridge Wells: a 4-star, 18th-cent. hotel located in the city centre. Being in the city-centre in a historic property, rooms vary in size and outlook. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use throughout.
A good level of fitness is essential as unavoidably a lot of walking is involved, some of it on sloping or uneven ground. Many of the gardens are large, and on some days up to 3 or 4 miles may be covered. Average distance by coach per day: 56 miles.
Between 10 and 22 participants.
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Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
19th - 26th May 2027
Speaker:
Louisa Allen
Price:
from US$5,930
(Based on two sharing)Testimonials
“Impeccable organisation, first class speakers and tour managers - and always good quality hotels and restaurants.
”
“Well planned and extremely enjoyable. A great variety of gardens which were all beautiful in their individual way.
”
“The trips are always of a high quality; it is so nice to have all the organisation taken care of, and to have access to events that would not be available to an independent traveller.
”
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