West Country, Cornwall & Scilly Isles
A six-day Tour “Gardens of the West Country, Cornwall and The Scilly Isles”
SOLD OUT - 2024
Next tour 2026.
Maximum of 30 places (however private groups please enquire)
Minimum of 24 people required.
Itinerary
Staying at the Tregenna Castle Hotel, St Ives
The Tregenna Castle Resort Hotel is set within acres of landscaped gardens with a garden gate leading to a lane giving access to St Ives, and via a steep lane to the beach. Within the grounds there are indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
En-route from our starting point and whilst based in St Ives we will visit a variety of gardens including:
The Lookout, Lympstone
A wildlife friendly garden described as sitting with it’s toes in the water, the Lookout offers a circular walk from an area of jungle-like planting, past banks of ornamental grasses, along the wild flower meadow’s mown paths, past a pond into a fern-filled copse and then back through wilder shore-side planting to a Mediterranean-style courtyard garden. To include refreshments. Hailed by Alan Titchmarsh and Carol Klein as a truly remarkable, must visit garden.
AND / OR
Hestercombe Gardens
A delightful garden combining the formality of Gertrude Jekyll & Lutyens with a wilder parkland.
Tresco Garden, Scilly Isles
A spectacular garden boasting an incredible array of exotic plants from across the globe; a flourishing oasis set on a tiny island surrounded by the Atlantic .
A host of succulents, towering palms, and giant lipstick-red flame trees fringe the lush grid of paths that criss-cross the gardens. Meander along winding paths through flowers of the King Protea and the handsome Lobster Claw, great blue spires of Echium, brilliant Furcraea, Strelitzia and shocking-pink drifts of Pelargonium.
This will require either a small-plane flight from Newquay or helicopter flight from Penzance.
Travel detail. The additional cost of this entire day will be approximately £250.
The day is optional. People preferring not to spend this extra money will have the opportunity to visit The Eden Project.
The Eden Project
Twenty-five years ago, Eden Cornwall was a sterile clay pit; today it is a living landscape full of life. Biomes representing different world environments and climates are planted to demonstrate our “dependence on plants and place”, plus Outdoor Gardens and the Invisible Worlds exhibition.
The Lost Gardens of Heligan
Exotic. Lush. Verdant. Jungle-like. Colourful. Secret & Hidden Corners. Sinuous paths through ancient Woodland. Productive gardens. Wildflowers & Wildlife, biodiversity maximised.
Europe’s largest garden restoration, the ultimate success story.
Trebah Gardens
Enjoy a morning in 26 acres of Cornish sub-tropical, valley gardens, with over four miles of footpaths and its own private beach! Swimming allowed.
NGS Trelan, St Ives
Marvellous Echium pininana growing everywhere, a swimming pond, Italianate sunken garden, a fern garden and many young trees. A private visit just for our group, refreshments included.
St. Michael’s Mount Castle and Gardens
A unique experience.
An island garden of exotic plants with both sheltered and windswept corners. Accessed by boat at High Tide or walk the Causeway at Low Tide.
Returning to St Ives for a free-to-please-yourselves, half-afternoon.
For those not wishing to cross the causeway to St Michael’s Mt, visit:
Surreal Succulents at Tremenheere Sculpture Garden
As featured in the RHS Journal, “The Garden”, July 2023. A specialist Succulents Nursery, offering many rare varieties, a “Green Roof” and mail order. Set within the grounds of Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens.
Modern art installations line these exotic plant-filled gardens offering panoramic views over the bay to St Michael’s Mt.
Wander at leisure, enjoy lunch and return to our coach to meet the “others” before returning to St Ives for a free-to-please-yourself half-afternoon
A Day near Penzance
NGS Bonython Manor
20 acres of colour: herbaceous walled garden, Potager with vegetables and flower-cutting garden, Grasses, Perennials, South African flowers, Lakes. To include refreshments.
NGS Trevilley
Described by the NGS as: “An eccentric, romantic and constantly evolving garden, as befits the intense creativity of its owners, carved out of an expanse of concrete farmyard over 20 yrs. Including an elaborate network of decorative cobbling, pools, container garden, vegetable garden, shade garden, the largely subtropical mowhay garden and both owners’ studios. Arguably its glory is being the westernmost walled-rose-garden in England.” Refreshments included.
Minack Theatre Gardens
(With the possibility of attending an evening play at the Minack Theatre).
The planted cliffs at Minack look wonderful all year; in winter aloes produce pokers of flower, while in May carpeting succulents bear sheets of dazzling daisy blooms. Agaves jostle with aeoniums, pink lampranthus and blue agapanthus in late summer. (Stephen Anderton, RHS: The Garden, 2013)
Final day – Depart St Ives
Travelling home via NGS Roseland House, Chacewater
A one-acre garden of vibrant summer colour; clematis, climbing plants, Victorian conservatory and greenhouses.
To include refreshments.
OR
RHS Rosemoor
This delightful RHS garden will be brimming over with mid-summer flowers, offering a true taste of English summer gardens
