United Kingdom

Garden Travel Guide to the United Kingdom

From Scotland’s woodland gardens to the formal and perennial gardens of southern England, historic castle gardens, picturesque vista gardens and quirky contemporary gardens the United Kingdom has something to enthrall every garden lover in every season. In spring you can see colourful spring bulb gardens and, in summer there are gardens filled with showy high summer perennials to stroll through. Come autumn/fall, vibrant tree colours are reflected across lakes and ornamental ponds and winter’s open gardens reveal elegant clipped conifer and box parterres.

Garden History in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom’s long love-affair with gardening begins with new plant introductions like the periwinkle even before Roman times, however the first evidence of purpose-built gardens dates from the medieval era, with monastic gardens of herbs, and contemplative cloister gardens. By the early 16th century, Henry VIII and his court were spending large sums on pleasure gardens around their huge country estates. The gardens at Richmond and Hampton Court date from this period and were laid out in formal French and Italian style.

By the mid 17th century, exploration through Africa and Asia, and to the New World saw an explosion of plant collecting and importing of new plants into Britain which were used in the intricate and formal Italianate gardens that were popular during this time, with grottos, parterres, elaborate fountains and many statues.

However by the early 18th century, there was a quintessentially English backlash against the huge scale and strict formality of these gardens, with new designers such as Kent, Rousham, the famous ‘Capability’ Brown and, later Repton ushering in a new era of natural style landscapes, with picturesque vistas across lakes, copses of trees, romantic follies and rolling lawns.

By the 19th century, garden fashions had turned again and the new ‘gardenesque’ style of Loudon, with its specimen plantings, shrubberies, unusual plant combinations and patterns of colourful bedding plants took hold.

A new naturalistic movement was an inevitable result with many of the England’s most famous Arts and Crafts gardens by Jekyll, Sackville-West and Johnston dating from the early 20th century, with their flower meadows and long, mixed-perennial borders kept more orderly in ‘garden rooms’ by dividing hedges and clipped topiary. In northern Scotland, the garden at Crathes Castle is another famous Arts and Crafts garden.

By the late 20th century, in residential gardens, the practical gardens of vegetables and herbs were overtaken by the cottage garden style, with mixed planting of perennials, roses and flowering climbers. However a growing awareness of working with the soil and climate rather than always seeking to improve them saw new gardening styles championed by gardeners such Beth Chatto in her dry gravel garden in Essex. And at Great Dixter, Christopher Lloyd turned all the tried-and-true plant combinations that gardeners thought they knew on their heads.

In much of the cooler and wetter parts of Wales, Scotland and Ireland, woodland gardens with large collections of rhododendrons and flowering shrubs, conifers, naturalised bulbs and ferns were developed, and are still popular today.

In Ireland and the south-west coast of England and north-west Scotland, the warmer and wetter climate meant that gardeners could experiment with collections of exotic plants from places like Australia, Africa and even tropical climates, such as in the Inverewe garden in north-west Scotland.

Garden styles in the United Kingdom

Perhaps as a response to its many days of dull, overcast skies, gardens throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland are still dominated by flowers, with laburnum walks, wisteria arches, rose gardens, perennial borders, and pots of colourful annuals.

However it is also a place of great garden design experimentation, as seen in the show gardens of Chelsea and Hampton Court and the 21st century gardens of The Garden of Cosmic Speculation and Little Sparta in Scotland.

British designers like Dan Pearson, Christopher Bradley-Hole, Tom Stuart-Smith and Andy Sturgeon are strongly influencing garden design around the world with new naturalistic plantings of delicate native plants and pared-back hardscapes featuring natural stone.

Gardens to visit in the United Kingdom

Gardens to visit in England

See Garden Guide to England (under construction)

Gardens to visit in Scotland

See Garden Guide to Scotland

Garden to visit in Wales

Northern Wales

Powis Castle and Gardens, Welshpool (National Trust garden)

Bodrhyddan, Denbighshire

Bodnant Garden, Conwy (National Trust garden)

Bodysgallen Hall, Conwy

Erddig Garden, Wrexham (National Trust garden)

Plas Newydd Country House, Anglesey (National Trust garden)

Plas Yn Rhiw, Pwllheli, Gwynedd

The Dingle Garden, Welshpool

Southern Wales

Veddw House, Devauden

Penpergwm Lodge Gardens, Abergavenny

Colby Woodland Garden, Amroth (National Trust garden)

National Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanartheney

Tredegar House and Park (National Trust garden)

Diffryn Botanic Garden

Parc Taf Bargoed, Trelewis

Aberglasney Gardens, Carmarthen

Llanerchaeron (National Trust garden)

Singleton Park and Swansea Botanic Gardens

Clyne Gardens, Swansea

Gardens to visit in Northern Ireland

Belfast and eastern Northern Ireland

Mount Stewart

Bellfast Botanic Gardens

Antrim Castle Gardens

Ballyrobert Gardens and Nursery – March to October

Kilcoan Gardens

Glenarm Castle Walled Gardens

Rowallane Garden (National Trust garden)

Seaforde Gardens

Castlewellan Forest Park and Peace Maze

Bangor Castle Walled Garden

Joymount Presbyterian Church Jacobean Knot Garden, Carrickfergus

Londonderry and north-west Northern Ireland

Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple

Brook Hall Estate and Arboretum

Amargh, Enniskillen and southern Northern Ireland

The Argory (National Trust garden)

Tully Castle

Northern Ireland private open gardens: see the National Trust Ulster Gardens Scheme

United Kingdom garden shows, festival and fairs

England

RHS Chelsea Flower Show – late May

Chelsea Fringe Festival – May-June

RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show – early July

RHS Tatton Park Flower Show – late July

BBC Gardeners’ World, Birmingham- late June

London’s Open Garden Squares – mid June

RHS Malvern Spring and Autumn Shows

Blenheim Palace Flower Show, Oxfordshire – mid June

Essex Flower Show – early June

Suffolk Flower Show – late March

Newbury Flower Show, Berkshire – early April

Newark Flower Show, Nottinghamshire – late April

National Flower Show, Hylands House, Essex – late May

Scotland

Gardening Scotland – early June

Ayr Flower Show, Ayrshire – early August

Wales

RHS Flower Show Cardiff

Royal Welsh Spring Festival, Powys – late May

Northern Ireland

Garden Show Ireland, Antrim – early May