In the hope that more free time emerges in between working; children; grandchildren; dogs and life’s unexpected calamities, the Growbags hope to write more and more reviews of gardens they’ve visited. If you’ve got something to say about a garden – please send it in with some pics so we can feature it here…..
You know that you have been on an epic garden visit when you leave with your preconceptions debunked, the dial on what is possible shifted and you continue to mull over with wonder at what you’ve experienced long afterwards. I was awash with all these emotions after Caroline had organised visits to two very contrasting […]
There are certain gardens that just have a magical, dream-like quality about them. They transport you to a place, a moment in time, that lingers in your memory more as a feeling than an image. This is one such garden. Your first temptation to visit The Manor at Hemingford Grey (near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire), might […]
If your own plot seems a little overwhelming at times, please visit the garden at 2 Durmamuck on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. Here Will Soos and Susan Pomeroy have created a simply breathtaking gardenscape of such a scale that it sits in proportion to the mountains and sea loch that frame it. Just […]
Few things are more exciting in March than finding the delicate yellow of a native primrose face upturned, towards the sun. It speaks of hope. Since the middle ages, gardeners have prized the many primroses that have developed from the native plant. The oldest are living antiques and today, great new varieties are being bred. Primroses are […]
Visiting gardens, flower shows and horticultural events is a big (and very enjoyable) part of the research we do for our blog. We always try to write a review or make a short film of our trips to pass on a flavour of our experience to you, our lovely readers. Here is a list of […]
If, like me, you have been led to believe that Chiswick House’s glasshouse collection of heritage camellias was its chief horticultural asset, then this needs redressing. For, lovely as they are, it transpires that the camellias are actually just minor walk-on characters in this West London garden with much greater stories to tell. About half […]
‘People think I’m disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion.’ The words of the Luciano Pavarotti and how well they describe the approach of the Christie family to their gardens at Glyndebourne – the iconic opera house in East Sussex. Everything about these truly unique gardens is designed to support the drama of Glyndebourne’s […]
Thank goodness for people like Matthew Young. If ever a garden needed a knight in shining armour to ride in and wrestle it back from the brink it is Linn Botanical Garden. The problem with great gardens is that unlike great paintings or books, they cannot be preserved for the nation without active management. If […]
I am still wondering if my visit to Arundel Castle Gardens really happened or whether it was a surreal dream. Arriving for the first Narnia-like glimpse through one of the glorious stone archways, it felt like we were entering a fantastical film-set rather than a working garden. Like a unique blend of The Lord of […]
The Wisley September Flower Show is a distant memory, Malvern Autumn Show has been and gone, the nights are drawing in and Strictly’s on the telly. But for die-hard plantaholics like me and Louise there is one last hurrah – and what a special one it is – The Great Dixter Autumn Plant Fair. Dixter’s […]
If you’re able to visit Broadwoodside garden at Gifford in East Lothian you’re a/ extremely lucky and b/ unlikely to forget it. Broadwoodside is a private garden. It only opens around once year for Scotland’s Garden scheme but Anna and Robert Dalrymple will host groups of discerning horticulturists and on this occasion made our small […]
The Dawyck experience starts a little before you actually reach the garden. That’s because it lies in the pretty Scottish Borders 28 miles south of Edinburgh. Rolling hills, low stone walls and the babbling River Tweed get you fully in the mood for this great woodland garden which has a devoted following. You see, Dawyck […]
If you like your garden visiting to be a little magical, a little bit mysterious, to be something you want to go back to, to see if it was really real, go to Lindisfarne on Holy Island. Designed by the legendary Gertrude Jekyll over a century ago, it is no more than 30 x 50 […]
You know that Alnwick Castle featured as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films, right? (gulp, me neither) but in fact the most amazing thing about Alnwick is how absolutely wizard its gardens are. I know, I know, the heart of a keen gardener might sink a little at the prospect of a garden attached to such […]
Branklyn Garden is surely one of Scotland’s national treasures. Its eccentricities start before you’ve even got there. For although it’s in Perth – a wonderfully central and connected city, it’s quite a tricky little number to locate even for your top notch Sat Nav. (Basically head over the river as though you’re going to Scone […]
I defy anyone not feel happier after a visit to Parham House Gardens in Pulborough, West Sussex. The sense of well-being starts as soon as you pull off the A283, drive in through the main gates and weave your way down through the historic parkland, a mosaic of downland, bracken and veteran trees opening up […]
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – it sounds impressive and given the complexity of its funding masters (and its structure – RBGE actually comprises four gardens in Scotland), the Edinburgh garden does a jolly good job of fulfilling expectations. Fact: it’s big – 70 acres. You can spend a good afternoon getting round it – […]
Every once in a while you come across a place with a timeless air about it – not flashy or cutting-edge, but with a calm, gracious look of antiquity and love about it that grabs your heart. That’s King John’s Lodge in Etchingham. It’s plonk in the middle of East Sussex off the A21. The house is a […]
If surprise and wonder are your shtick, take 13 minutes out of your M6 journey north or south and get along to Larch Cottage Nurseries just south of Penrith. I know, it sounds disarmingly underwhelming, and believe me the little terraced cottage entrance compounds the deception, for you have in fact found the horticultural equivalent […]
Highdown Gardens isn’t your usual garden visit. When Sir Frederick Stern was looking for a safe curator for the eclectic range of plants he had successfully established in a chalk pit above Worthing on the Sussex Coast he eschewed what might have been the more natural choice of the National Trust (they must be spitting […]