City living has plenty of benefits, but finding quiet gardens can sometimes be a challenge in the concrete jungle. As spring brings the best flowers of the year, venture to the English countryside where flowers thrive and birds sing. Here is our list of most picturesque British gardens to visit that aren’t too far from London!
High Beeches Garden, West Sussex | 1 hour 11 minutes
This West Sussex garden is lovingly deemed a local hidden gem of 27 acres of botanical beauty. Explore woodlands, water gardens, and award-winning plants, like the National Collection of Stewartias. The Stewartia is an evergreen tree that produces white camellia-like blossoms along its boughs. The High Beeches Garden also has an impressive, RHS award-winning collection of rhododendrons.
Another highlight includes their uncultivated wildflower meadow which is a Registered Site of Nature Conservation and stands where an ancient meadowland once stood. It is this commitment to conservation and biodiversity that led High Beeches to establish a Conservation Trust in 1987. Additionally, they partner with local conservation projects like the Wilder Ouse Project and the Weald to Waves Project.
Wakehurst Gardens, West Sussex | 1 hour 20 minutes
The wild botanicals of Wakehurst Gardens are maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens teams of Kew Gardens, making it a must-see for nature lovers. The 500 acres are incredibly diverse, encompassing global biodiversity of plants and flowers. Much of the gardens encompass the different plant and flower species that flourish across the world with dedicated global garden collections. Visit gardens of Asia, North America, Child, Australia and New Zealand, and the British Isles without having to leave British soil. Amongst these gardens you will find glades, valleys, woods, meadows, wetlands, lakes and ponds. Furthermore, spring to summer highlights include the Iris Dell and Westwood Valley.
What sets Wakehurst Gardens apart is their future-thinking Millennium Seed Bank. This glass atrium allows visitors to watch scientists in action, exploring “the future of seeds”. The centre contains sub-zero chambers that are flood, bomb, and radiation-proof to protect 2.4 billion seeds from across the globe.
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Anglesey Abbey Garden, Cambridgeshire | 1 hour 40 minutes
The Anglesey Abbey has beautiful grounds to explore from arboretums and orchards to a variety of gardens, walks and water features (including a mediaeval pond). Some seasonal highlights include the Spring Garden, Formal Garden, Rose Garden, Dahlia Garden and Wildflower Meadows. Discover pockets of vibrant hyacinths, blooming chestnut trees, and wildflower meadows that attract local wildlife. The Rose Garden is a feast for the senses with an explosion of colour of 40 rose species. The aroma in the garden is second to none, transporting you to the golden age of English gardens. An additional unique feature of the Dahlia Garden brings an almost infinite combination of colours from blushing pinks to deep crimsons.
Sissinghurst Castle, Kent | 1 hour 45 minutes
What Sissinghurst Castle garden lacks in size it makes up for in the flourishing plants and flowers that flood the space. Previously owned by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, artists of the 20th century Bloomsbury group, these cottage-style gardens feature a series of garden “rooms”. Visitor favourites include the White Garden, Lime Walk and Delos Garden. Sackville-West and Nicolson took inspiration from their holidays to the Greek island of Delos when designing this garden. So, if you can’t go abroad, Sissinghurst is the next best thing!
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Arundel Castle Gardens, West Sussex | 1 hour 45 minutes
With the drama of the Arundel Castle founded 1,000 years ago, the gardens are no less impressive, even playing host to an annual tulip festival every April. Though the 2024 festival has come and gone, late blooming tulips are still at their best. With award winning tropical and English gardens, a stumpery, feature fountains, ponds, pavilions, and even a temple with golden antlers crowning the entrance, there is something unexpected and spectacular around every corner. Catch a glimpse of the gardens ahead of your visit on the BBC Gardeners World feature with the castle’s head gardener, Martin Dunan.
Highgrove Royal Gardens, Gloucestershire | 1 hour 55 minutes
Calling Highgrove the crowning jewel of British gardens wouldn’t be a stretch as it is the home to their majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla. Since 1980, the King and his landscape team have cultivated gardens of beauty, history, creativity and sustainability. Open March through October, enjoy guided tours, workshops and events that embrace the spirit of the gardens. Some highlights include the sundial garden, stumpery, thyme walk and the National Collection of hostas. The gardens’ ethos of sustainability, both in the management of the grounds and the educational gardening programmes for all backgrounds. In short, this means that a love of sustainable gardening will be alive and well in Britain for generations to come.
Beth Chatto Garden, Essex | 1 hour 55 minutes
Sustainability in gardening has become a hot topic in the past few years. Award winning gardener, Beth Chatto OBE, focused on this aspect of gardening before it was cool! Her belief that you should work with nature, planting plants appropriate for the land and climate, encapsulated by her well-known phrase of “Right Plant, Right Place”, is embodied in the family-run Beth Chatto Garden in Essex.
This British garden is split into five sections: the gravel garden, the scree garden, the water garden, the woodland garden, and the reservoir garden. Her dedication to gardening and education made the establishment of an education trust make sense. For the amateur gardener to aspiring professionals, there are workshops, events and even courses to obtain the RHS Theory qualification!
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Chatsworth Gardens, Derbyshire | 3 hours
Chatsworth, home to the Duke of Devonshire, has a fabulous garden to explore and admire. The Victorian rock garden, maze, ponds, rose garden, grotto and more mean you can spend the whole day exploring. This estate allegedly served as inspiration for the ancestral home of Jane Austen’s best beloved hero, Mr. Darcy. If that’s not an endorsement for the grandeur of the home and gardens, we don’t know what is!
Newby Hall, North Yorkshire | 3 hours
Newby Hall nestled in God’s Own Country boasts a beautiful and award-winning garden. Named Historic Houses’ “Garden of the Year” in 2019 and hosting Harrogate’s annual Autumn Flower Show, as well as the home to the National Collection of dogwoods, the grounds live up to the hype. The gardens were thoughtfully curated with greenery paths leading towards the house, bordered by shrubs and packed with vibrant flowers. Moreover, their formal Sylvia Garden (at its best in May), Autumn Garden, Rose Garden, Water Garden, Rock Garden, Woodland Garden, Tropical Garden and Orchard Garden ensure you have plenty to explore from local blooms to those transported from further afield.
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RHS Harlow Carr, North Yorkshire | 4 hours
Harlow Carr is one of five of the RHS gardens and is widely considered the best. Just outside of the spa town of Harrogate, venture to this award winning garden. What’s more, you can peruse flowers while enjoying tea and cake at the region’s celebrated tea room, Betty’s. In spring, the gardeners’ highlight the Bath House Terraces as a must-see with the explosion of purples, whites and greens of Primula, Rhododendrons, and Dog Tooth Violets. The romantic stone steps covered in bright greens of lichen and moss add to the overall effect. The other top spot is the woodland garden as it is currently swathed in a carpet of bluebells. Though the expansive grounds are packed with things to do, see and smell, you still have the opportunity to find a corner for quiet reflection.
Have a Blooming Good Time!
Reconnecting with nature in the spring is a form of self care. We hope our list of most picturesque British gardens will encourage you to discover your own not-so-secret garden. Be sure to send us photos of your wonderful garden adventures to our Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!
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