PROGRAM
B = Breakfast L = Lunch T = Tea D = Dinner
Please note that the program is subject to changes
Day 1 16 May 2024 - Arrival London, England (D)
Arrival in London, England, from your home destination, by your own arrangement. Check-in at Castle Hotel in Windsor. Meet with ARNE & CARLOS for welcome drinks and dinner in the hotel.
Day 2 17 May 2024 - Windsor to Tunbridge Wells (B, D)
Depart from the hotel after a good English breakfast and proceed to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden at Wisley, Britain’s most important plant collection and garden display. This is British gardening at its best in all aspects, with 250 acres of glorious gardens. At this time of year, the wooded slopes massed with azaleas and rhododendrons should be at peak bloom. The bookstore at the garden is thought to have the most extensive collection of gardening books in the country and perhaps the world.
We continue to Hever Castle, the ancestral home of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife. The spectacular gardens at Hever Castle were laid out between 1904 and 1908 by Joseph Cheal & Son, turning the marshland into the spectacular gardens we see today. One of the most magnificent areas of the gardens is the Italian Garden, which was designed to display William Waldorf Astor’s collection of Italian sculptures. The tour continues through the “Garden of England” en route to Tunbridge Wells in Kent and check-in to Ashley Park Hotel.
Day 3 18th May 2024 - Sissinghurst and Great Dixter (B, D)
This morning we visit Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, perhaps the most famous of Britain's romantic gardens, created by the poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, and her husband, Sir Harold Nicholson. Utilizing the design concept of garden rooms and incorporating it with ruined castle walls makes this garden most spectacular. Lunch independently in the garden cafeteria.
Later this afternoon we visit Great Dixter, which has been the home of the Lloyd family since 1920 and where gardening writer Christopher Lloyd has continued the work started by his father, creating a series of colorful gardens.
Day 4 19th May 2024 - Pashley Manor and Port of Rye (B, L, D)
Today’s garden is Pashley Manor, a quintessential English garden offering a blend of romantic landscaping, and imaginative plantings with emphasis on colour and form, together with fine old trees, fountains, springs and large ponds. Mr. and Mrs. James Sellick opened their gardens to the public in 1992, having brought them to their present splendour. Pashley has several acres of beautiful borders and vistas – the culmination of a lifetime of passion for gardening, an appetite for beauty, and an admiration of the tradition of the English Country Garden. These graceful gardens, on the border of Sussex and Kent, are family-owned and maintained – delightfully displayed throughout with an intimate and peaceful atmosphere.
Afterward, the tour continues to the ancient Cinque Port of Rye for a lunch stop. Perched on a hill, overlooking the River Rother and Romney Marsh, this ancient town is the sort of place you thought existed only in your imagination. With enchanting, cobbled streets, a medieval church and beautifully preserved historic houses from medieval, Tudor and Georgian times, Rye is almost suspended in time and has a uniquely unhurried tour atmosphere.
In the afternoon we are treated to a visit to Chapel Down Winery near Tenterden. Enjoy a guided tour of the vineyards and winery, learning about the grape varieties planted in the vineyard and how they turn the climate to their advantage. The tour will finish back at the Wine and Fine Food Store on-site and includes a tasting of their excellent wines.
Day 5 20th May 2024 – From the South to The Cotswolds (B, T, D)
Departure from the southeast this morning for a journey to the picturesque region of The Cotswolds, with a morning visit to Rousham, one of England’s most important gardens. Rousham represents the first phase of English landscape design and remains almost as its designer William Kent left it. Many of the features that delighted its 18th century visitors are still there for 21st century visitors to enjoy.
At Broughton Castle, afternoon tea will be served, in stately surroundings! Broughton Castle is a moated and fortified manor house near Banbury in North Oxfordshire. The Castle had strong links with the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War. Still a family home, Broughton Castle is lived in by the Fiennes family with a beautiful formal garden and park.
Our hotel for the next four nights is the charming Charingworth Manor in Chipping Camden, where we will enjoy dinner together this evening.
Day 6 21st May 2024 – Hidcote Manor, The Cotswolds (B, D)
This morning, following breakfast, we visit perhaps the most influential English garden design of the 20th century, Hidcote Manor. Although among the best-known gardens in Britain, Hidcote Manor still has the power to startle. It was begun before World War I by an American, Major Lawrence Johnston, who devised a type of garden that many think of as quintessentially English. It is a garden built up of separate rooms, each connected to the rest but often with blazing contrasts, laid out in a disciplined setting. Everywhere something enticing is glimpsed through an opening, across a pool or framed by a gate.
In the afternoon, we continue to Kiftsgate Court, which offers an admirable selection of plants and flowers, not least of which is the well-known rambling rose R. filipes ‘Kiftsgate’. The house, in a splendid setting with views to the Vale of Evesham, is surrounded by a series of enclosed gardens, whose formality is blurred by generous planting. Developed by three generations of women, the gardens are a plantsman's delight reflecting the pleasure the family has had collecting species from all over the world.
Before heading back to our hotel, we will visit Sudeley Castle, a medieval masterpiece once the home of Queen Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife, who is buried in the church in the grounds. The extensive grounds contain ten integrated, but individual gardens. The gardens surrounding the ruins of the banqueting hall and the barn are exceptionally beautiful.
Day 7 22nd May 2024 - Rockcliffe and Broadway (B, D)
This morning’s first visit will take you to tranquil cottage pastures, with grazing sheep, set perfectly amongst the immaculately cared-for five-acre private garden of Rockcliffe. The garden has been cared for and created by Mrs. Keswick for the last eighteen years. Explore the walled and box-edged kitchen garden, herbaceous borders, a sunken garden, and a swimming pool garden.
Afterward, we have a stop in Broadway for lunch at our own leisure, and maybe some shopping, before continuing on to the picturesque garden at Upton Wold. Mr. and Mrs. Bond have invited us to view their garden created in the 1970’s, which is a very distinguished typical Cotswold garden. It is full of imaginative planting, with great care taken to provide lovely views from the house.
Day 8 23rd May 2024 – Highgrove Gardens and Miserden (B, L, D)
After breakfast this morning we head for Highgrove, the country home of His Majesty the King. This will be a rare opportunity to see these fascinating gardens which of course are cultivated using wholly organic methods. Since buying the property in 1980 His Majesty has devoted much energy to transforming the gardens around the house. Over 40 years in the making, the gardens at Highgrove are some of the most creatively inspiring and innovative in the United Kingdom. The series of interlinked gardens reflects His Majesty’s natural artistic ability. Managed organically and sustainably, the gardens have become an important haven for a rich variety of flora and fauna. Highgrove is the family home of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla and today’s lunch will be at Highgrove!
In the afternoon, we visit Miserden Gardens. This lovely, timeless, walled garden overlooks a deer park and the rolling Cotswold hills of the Golden Valley beyond. Designed in the 17th century, the garden still retains a wonderful sense of peace and tranquility with a topiary yew walk and quaint grass steps designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who also redesigned a wing of Miserden Park. The Park was built in 1620 and although the house is not open to the public, it provides a wonderful backdrop to the garden especially when covered in Wisteria in the spring.
The garden is well known for its magnificent mixed borders, amongst the longest in private ownership. They contain a wonderfully wide range of roses, clematis, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that provide colour right through from spring to autumn.
Farewell dinner this evening at Charingworth Manor Hotel.
Day 9 24th May 2024 – Departure from Chipping Camden to London (B)
After breakfast, check out and depart for London Heathrow and further onwards travel, by individual arrangements.
Special notice:
Please note the running order of the tour may change subject to a successful application for admittance to Highgrove, which will be confirmed in February 2024. Should we not succeed in getting tickets for Highgrove, which are limited and in high demand, we will make alternative plans for other gardens to visit.
