Great Gardens of Cornwall – 2023

We travel to Cornwall with regular breaks, and on this leg of the journey we will include a stop at Visit Hillbrush. Rather unusually, it’s a brush manufacturer with a shop and small museum attached, as well as a restaurant, where we will have lunch, which is included in the price of the tour.
Later in the day, we visit The Garden House in Devon, described by Toby Buckland as: “a plant spotter’s paradise”, where we’ll enjoy some lovely spring gardens.
In the evening, we’ll arrive at the Carlyon Bay Hotel, St Austell, where we’ll enjoy dinner, bed and breakfast accommodation for the holiday.

Our first Cornish garden is Bonython, situated on the Lizard Peninsula, and close to the mainland’s most southerly point.
The array of species is enough to whet any garden-lover’s appetite, especially when it’s served up with a jaw-dropping view that stretches over the orchard of Cornish apple trees towards the swan-scattered Lake Joy. And joy it really is!
Moving on we visit Trewithen. Enjoying the warmth of the Gulf Stream, these magical Cornish gardens are home to a wealth of the most exciting, rare and beautiful plants and trees in the British Isles.
A beautiful place to visit, there is something to discover at every turn of Trewithen’s level gravelled pathways. Champion Trees, rare shrubs, exotic fern collections, woodland glades, wildflowers and the longest lawn in Cornwall – just some of the features of a truly beautiful place that our visitors tell us is both inspiring and relaxing.

We begin this day with a visit to the superb Lamorran, a sub-tropical, Italianate-inspired garden on Cornwall’s beautiful Roseland Peninsula.
A garden of many levels, it is situated on a south-facing slope, and is surrounded on three sides by the benign influence of the warming sea. St Anthony’s headland sits across the water, creating a protected inlet to St Mawes and the river beyond.
In the afternoon, we’ll visit The Eden Project. I’m sure there is little which needs to be said about this garden, except that the huge biomes remain as amazing as ever, with a stunning array of plants across the Jungle and Mediterranean zones. It’s no wonder scenes have been filmed here for James Bond films!

Our first treasure today is another famous name: Trebah, a sub-tropical paradise with a stunning coastal backdrop; the result of over 175 years of inspired and dedicated creation.
Discover the magic of this beautiful valley garden, explore under canopies bursting with exotic blooms and follow vibrant tunnels of colour that cascade down to their very own secluded beach on the Helford River.
In spring, Trebah comes alive with a colourful array of 100-year-old rhododendrons, magnolias and camellias.
In the afternoon we make our way to, Tregrehan. Tucked into St Austell Bay, Tregrehan has an enviable location for a woodland garden. Sheltered by higher ground, having adequate rainfall and with the mild Gulf Stream less than a mile away, lies Cornwall’s atmospheric rain-forest. Towering conifers from the early Victorian plant hunters, combined with botanically important recent planting, has encouraged over 150 trees to reach Champion status in the UK.

We start the Day at Caerhays Castle, where the garden is only open during the spring.
Set against the spectacular castle, the 140-acre woodland gardens are English Heritage Listed Grade II*. The origins of this historically important collection of Chinese plants can be traced back to the work of the great plant hunters Ernest Wilson (1876-1930) and George Forrest (1873-1932).
The gardens also feature many rhododendrons, camellias and trees which are nationally classed as Champion Trees by the Tree Register.
We will visit just the garden here in order to give us more time at our next venue, a personal favourite of many: The Lost Gardens of Heligan.
It’s remarkable to think that this estate, owned by the Tremayne family, covered 1,000 acres at the end of the 19th century, and that it was the Great War which marked the start of a long decline, with many of the men departing to fight, many, sadly, never returning.
At this point the story diverges from the majority of large country gardens, which were usually broken up and sold. Heligan was not and simply fell into ruin. The house was finally sold in the 1970s for apartments, but the garden was retained by the family. Then, a hurricane in 1990 prompted the interest of John Willis (a descendant of the Tremaynes) and Tim Smit (also of Eden Project fame) who discovered the remains of the garden. From here the restoration began.

On our final day, we leave The Carlyon Bay Hotel and Cornwall to head homewards, stopping for frequent breaks, with a longer stop at Stourhead, where you can buy lunch and enjoy the beautiful landscaped gardens, famous for their sweeping vistas and quirky follies.