Western Europe & UK

Regional Garden Travel Guide to Western Europe and UK

Getting there, and around

In Garden Tour Hub’s guides, Western Europe and the UK includes:
Ireland, Iceland, United Kingdom (Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales), Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg, and the micro-states of Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, San Marino and Monaco.

All Western Europe’s cities are easy to fly to and from most destinations worldwide. For those flying from Asia, Australia and Oceania, using a change point like Dubai gives direct access to dozens of Western European and UK cities. From USA’s west coast, flights to London and Paris are a long-haul flight of nearly 11 hours, and 11:15 hours to Munich.

Within Europe there are many cheap flights between major cities on budget carriers such as Ryanair or easyJet for only $20USD however be warned that they have very strict and much lower luggage limits than trans-Atlantic and other international flights, so if you bring 25-30kg of luggage with you, be prepared to pay a fortune in excess baggage!

Climate

Western Europe and the UK’s climate is dominated by the warming currents of the Gulf Stream and the warming effect of the relatively shallow Mediterranean Sea. These prevent the winters of most Western European countries from being nearly as cold or snowy as North America, even though most of them are at a higher latitude.

The wettest parts of Europe are those that receive rain from the prevailing westerly winds during the winter months, such as Ireland, western UK, northwest Spain, and western Norway and also in early summer, referred to as the ‘European Monsoon’. Other areas of Europe also have a winter maximum rainfall. The mildest areas of Europe are along the Mediterranean Spanish Costa del Sol and the hottest summers in inland Spain and Italy.

Topography and vegetation

The four defining physical features of Western Europe and the UK are Western Uplands, the North European Plain, the Central Uplands and the Alpine Mountains.

The Western Uplands are areas shaped by glaciers such as Britain, Denmark, Scandinavia and Iceland, and they still have many fiords, lakes and marshlands. The North European Plain is mostly flat land less than 150 metres (500 feet) in elevation bordering the Atlantic Ocean and home to Europe’s most productive farmlands and the bulk of its population, such as southern UK, north-west France, Belgium, The Netherlands, northern Germany, and southern Denmark. The Central Uplands is an elevated plateau through central France, southern Germany and northern Switzerland much of which is heavily wooded. The Alpine Mountains zone include the Alps and Pyrenees and active volcanoes in Italy.

Mixed conifer and deciduous tree forests once covered most of the more elevated areas of Western Europe and grasslands on the Plain, but most has been cleared for farming and an increasingly urban population. The Mediterranean basin has a distinct flora of highly drought-resistant plants.

Garden styles

Europe has been gardened since Roman times, so there are layers of history in its gardens, many of which have been redesigned and replanted dozens of times through the centuries reflecting the waxing and waning of empires, changes in garden design fashions, and the arrival of newly discovered and collected plants from other continents.

Medieval gardens were mostly productive monastic gardens. The first well-known large landscape gardens emerged during the 15th century Italian Renaissance and were modelled on ideas of Roman symmetry and order. Several Renaissance gardens are still maintained in that style such as Villa d’Este and the Boboli gardens in Italy.

André Le Nôtre revolutionised garden design in France during the 17th century, creating the French classical style of long axes crossing a flattened landscape with canals, orangeries, fountains and grottos as can still be seen at Versailles.

The 18th century saw the rise of the English Picturesque gardens designed by masters such as Capability Brown and William Kent, which pushed back against the formal Classical style with naturalistic park-like grounds featuring woodlands, lakes and follies. French Rococo gardens of the same period also started to incorporate international influences from China and Japan and Turkey.

From the early 19th century, the Victorian/Gardenesque/collector’s style garden began to evolve, where each plant is displayed to its best advantage, fuelled by the new and interesting plants being brought back by plant hunters in far-off places. Island beds, strange plant juxtapositions and detailed features were scattered about the garden, often linked by a winding path.

By the turn of the 20th century, this gave way to the cottage garden and herbaceous border style popularised by Gertrude Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West and Margery Fish which persisted for many decades and was further revived in the 1980-1990s.

In the middle 20th century, contemporary gardens with simpler and less fussy layouts emerged, inspired by similar the art and architecture movement of ‘from follows function’ and also modernist gardens of patterns and foliage rather than flowers.

In recent years a naturalistic planting style of natural-style meadow gardens and seasonal perennials has been inspired by American designers such as James van Sweden and Wolfgang Oehme.

Western Europe and UK regularly open gardens

See individual country entries listed at the top of this guide

Western Europe and UK garden festivals and shows

Flower Parade – Nice, France, mid February
Giardina Zürich – Zürich, Switzerland, late March
Keukenhof Gardens – Lisse, The Netherlands, March-May
RHS London Spring Plant Extravaganza – London, UK
Festa da Flor – Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, mid April
RHS Flower Show Cardiff – Cardiff, Wales, UK, mid April
Nordic Gardens –  Stockholm, Sweden, late April
International Garden Festival – Chateau Chaumont-sur-Loire, France, late April-end October
Floralia – Brussels April-May
Girona Temps de Flors – Girona, Spain, early May
RHS Malvern Spring Festival – Malvern, Worcestershire, UK, early May
Córdoba Patios Festival – Córdoba, Spain, early May
D’Aywiers Plant and Gardens Festival – Jardins D’Aywiers gardens, Lasne, Belgium, early May
Garden Festival Herrenhausen – Herrenhausen Palace, Hannover, Germany, mid May
Chelsea Flower Show – London, UK, late May
Perugia Flower Show – Perugia, Italy , late May
Northwest Garden Show – Castlefinn, Donegal, Ireland, late May (next show 2017?)
Jardins, Jardin – Tuileries, Paris, France, early June
Garden Show Ireland – Antrim Castle Gardens, Northern Ireland UK, early June
Gardening Scotland – Edinburgh, Scotland UK, early June
Bloom – Dublin, Ireland (Eire), early June
RHS Hampton Court Flower Show – London UK, early July
RHS Flower Show Tatton Park – Knutsford, Cheshire, UK, late July
Brussel’s Flower Carpet – Grand-Place, a biennial event, next in August 2016
Paris Garden Festival – Paris, France, late September
Malvern Autumn Show – Malvern, Worcestershire, late September

2017

RHS Chatsworth Flower Show – Chatsworth, Derbyshire, early June 2017
IGA – International Garden Exhibition – Berlin, Germany, April – September 2017

Best time to visit gardens

April-October – early spring for bulbs; spring-summer for flowering trees, shrubs and perennials; autumn foliage. There are also some UK gardens open throughout the winter.