England: Gardens of Kent & Sussex15th Aug 2025
From:£995
Summary
If there’s one tour that epitomises the joy of strolling around a perfect English country garden, it is this one – with one shining example after another to be savoured and enjoyed.
Even if you have visited some of these properties before, such is their allure that you can return again and again, just as you would re-read your favourite novel. First-time visitors will be bowled over by the quality and pedigree of these gardens, which capture the essence of the English country garden. We start at Great Comp, filled with rare and beautiful shrubs, followed by Lullingstone Castle.
Nymans Garden offers outstanding plants in a theatrical setting and is twinned with the Sussex Prairie Garden, reminiscent of the work of the great Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf. We also visit Sissinghurst, surely the most-copied flower garden in the world, and Great Dixter. A stroll around the gardens of Scotney Castle and a special visit to RHS Garden Wisley, round off a distinguished tour.
With all gardens offering year-round colour and interest, choose between the warmth and extravagance of summer or the myriad colours of autumn.
What to Expect
- Lullingstone Castle’s innovative World Garden of Plants
- Outstanding plant collections at Nymans
- The magnificently manicured gardens of Sissinghurst
Departure Routes
| Location | Pickup Time | Dropoff Time |
|---|---|---|
| To be advised | 00:00 | 00:00 |
| London - Coach Bays on Tothill Street, Westminster | 08:45 | 20:00 |
| Gatwick - Outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel London Gatwick | 10:00 | 18:30 |
** Please note that all timings are approximate and subject to change. Final timings and pick-up points will be confirmed with your joining instructions approximately 10 days prior to departure. **
Day by Day Itinerary
We depart from our pick-up points in London and Gatwick and head towards Kent and our first visit, Great Comp Garden – a beautiful seven-acre garden with many beautiful and rare shrubs, perennials and other hardy plants. This Kent garden is a plantsman’s haven. The year starts with Helleborus, followed by magnolias, rhododendrons and azaleas, then the remainder of the year follows with rare and exotic shrubs and perennial plants such as the huge collection of Salvias. There are areas of formal and informal plantings linked with meandering grass paths and ruins homing in on an Italian Garden.
From here we continue to the magnificent Lullingstone Castle. A historic family mansion dating back to the time of Domesday, frequented by Henry VIII and Queen Anne, the manor house and garden are set in the beautiful Darent Valley. The garden was designed by horticulturist Tom Hart Dyke, a modern day plant hunter who follows in the traditions of plant hunters who used to risk their lives and limbs in pursuit of fantastic blooms and plants, during his nine month kidnap at the hands of the Columbian Guerrillas in 2000. On his release he created the World Garden of Plants, which he continues to grow and build each year adding rare and important botanical plants to its collection.
We continue to our hotel, where dinner is served in the evening.
Meals includedDinner
