From Kensington Palace to private estates, my most recent adventure is dear to my heart. As a seriously addicted gardener, a two-week trip through London, Cornwall and Devon revealed much more than I was expecting.
Pastoral scenes like this typify the landscape throughout Cornwall.
My friends Pam and Judy and I took the tour in April, when most people think that it’s too early to view gardens in England. Not so. The weather was perfect, and we were lucky enough to catch the end of the camellias and enjoy early blooming orchards of apples, view tulips, daffodils and grape hyacinths.
Curated by Huron Tours, based in New Orleans, the travel company has been in business for more than 35 years. Owners John and Katie Kosta know their gardens and conduct multiple garden tours annually, both domestically and abroad.
Our itinerary included 15 gardens with amazing stories to tell. From visiting Caerhays Castle built in the early 1300s to exploring two of the country’s newest – Wild Side and The Newt – not only did we see incredible landscapes, we toured family estates, country homes, former monasteries and hunting lodges.
More than the homes and gardens, we discovered many little-known stories about England’s role in both WWI and WWII, but more about that in a minute.
We started with a day in London as other travelers arrived from the US, Canada and Australia. Our group of 18 quickly bonded over the trip’s excellent cuisine and our mutual love of flowers.
Kensington Sunken Garden with a recently commissioned tribute to Princess Diana and her global caring for children.
Kensington Palace is home to several royal apartments and cottages on the grounds. Parts of the palace are open for tours – Queen Mary’s State Apartments and the 16th century King’s Staircase. The recently opened “Dress Code” exhibition chronicled royal fashion from Queen Victoria – whose waist eventually reached 64 inches! – to fashions familiar to fans of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana. A bonus!
The next day we took the Great Western Railway and a motor coach to arrive in the seaside town of Falmouth in Cornwall, our home base for touring seven gardens in the area over the next five days.
The 25-acre Trebah Garden’s ravines displayed both tropical plants from the Mediterranean and those thriving in a rain forest environment. During the mid-19th century, it was a profitable business to send plant hunters around the globe to bring back exotic plants to fill private gardens. New Zealand tree ferns, banana plants and bamboos lined the ravines as we walked down to the private beach on the Helford River.
Surprise No. 1 – I had heard about the D-Day rehearsal for the 29th US Infantry division late in April of 1944. What I didn’t know was that 7,500 US troops stayed in and around Trebah, some living on the estate. This is where they set sail for the rehearsal – and in the wee hours of June 6, these same troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. I was moved to tears, especially after having interviewed a 100-year-old D-Day veteran recently for another article who was there for both events.
Gigantic rhododendrons of 25 feet or more were not uncommon.
As we continued through Cornwall, enormous Himalayan rhododendrons and gigantic Asian camellias became the garden stars. Brought to England by plant hunters, they made their way into estate gardens, where curious horticulturalists developed hybrids. We walked the garden trails flanked by rhodies with blossom clusters as big as soccer balls, clusters of azalea blooms and single- and double-form camellias ranging from white to almost red-black. However, most camellias were solid colored or sported the occasional contrasting color splash.
Later I asked a gardener at another estate why variegated camellias were scarce. His reply, “everyone has their own preferences.” Well, okay then. For me, variegate away!
Caerhays Castle hosted Henry VIII and his entourage in the early 1500s. The fortress bore all the marks of the times: large rooms with rough hewn furniture, tapestries and open fireplaces, plus thick wooden doors and arrow slits in the rock walls. The beamed ceilings showed the centuries of smoke from fires for heat and cooking.
Surprise No. 2 – OMG! The Williams family owned Caerhays Castle from the late 1800s, and the first generation of the family was responsible for creating the first hybrid camellias that were exported to the United States. Needless to say, I posed with the original plants that were more than 175 years old and are still producing blooms after all this time. I was in camellia heaven!
Caerhays Castle and Estate in Cornwall, built in 1808, has nearly 140 acres of informal woodland gardens.
Magnolias were first imported to England in the late 1400s, but Caerhays Castle Gardens has been a leading hybridizer of magnolias for more than a century. It holds the honor of having the largest of four UK national magnolia collections with more than 170 named cultivars on the property.
While in Devon, we stayed in Dartmouth, also the location of the Britannia Royal Naval College attended by Prince Philip. It’s perched high on a hill overlooking the harbor on the Dart River.
Other celebrities are connected with Dartmouth as well: for one, Agatha Christie and her second husband Max Mallowan. Her home, National Trust’s Greenway House, was about 30-minutes by ferry from our hotel at the marina. Walled gardens and woodlands surround the home where we discovered that she was a collector or silver, books, China and family mementoes. The estate served as a backdrop for several of her novels, including “Dead Man’s Folly,” “Five Little Pigs” and “Ordeal by Innocence.”
Greenway House, the home of Agatha Christie, houses hundreds of books and decorated with scenes from WWII.
Surprise No. 3 – Not all English gardens are formal. In fact, it was in England that the term landscape gardening or naturalistic gardening developed – the opposite of formal gardening. Never was it more evident than at Wildside, created by Keith Wiley.
Fifteen years ago, the horticulturalist purchased a flat 4-acre site and moved tons and tons of soil to create an undulating landscape with ecological niches of various climates. Succulents, century plants, yucca and heat-loving plants grow just paces away from woodland gardens with Japanese maples, colorful wildflower meadows and various grasses. It resembles a colorful painting created by broad brushstrokes of plants.
One of England’s newest formal gardens, The Newt – named for the colonies of great crested newts discovered in ponds as the gardens were being redesigned – is like Disney World for gardeners. Horticulturalists are taking gardening into the future, by exploring new techniques for raised-bed plantings, blending hardscapes with plantings in unusual ways, growing extensive kitchen gardens, orchards and cutting gardens that are for more than just looks.
Almost every garden we visited had cold frames and greenhouses.
More an upper-end resort than strictly gardens, guests can reserve luxuriously appointed rooms in the main house and several historic buildings on the property. Interactive museums, a Roman village, a small and charming village with an ice-cream shop, a butchery and amazing restaurants that showcase produce grown in state-of-the-art greenhouses and cold frames.
From this tour, it was difficult to pick a favorite garden, castle or estate, but my eyes were certainly opened about where plants we love originated, new gardening techniques I am itching to try and the role that the British have played in introducing refined horticulture to the world.
Glendurgan Garden’s intricate maze is planted with cherry laurel. It has been in place for nearly 200 years.
Garden tours are different than the adventures I usually make, but this was a refreshing – and enlightening – chance to peek behind the garden walls to be immersed in the natural world.
Photos: by Pamela A. Keene
