Guided Garden Tour at Bourton-on-the-Water

Summer tour:

Day 1: Arrival day.

Your room will be available from 2.30pm onwards. Please join us for tea between 4pm and 5pm to meet the leader and your fellow guests.

Before dinner there will be a brief introduction to the holiday programme.

Day 2: This morning we visit Cerney House gardens which are situated in a sheltered valley just north of Cirencester. The three-acre walled garden is like a wonderful cottage garden but on a grand scale. In the afternoon we visit Abbey House Gardens where yew hedges divide the garden and act as a backdrop for the exuberant planting and thought-provoking sculpture. 

Day 3: This morning we visit Brook Cottage, a private garden created by a husband and wife team of architect and plantswoman. The garden lies on the west facing slope of the valley and has been designed to provide interest at every season.

We spend the afternoon at Upton House where the Mediterranean Banks contain plants from warmer regions of the world and the vegetable and fruit gardens lie in the sheltered valley below.

Day 4: Hidcote Manor this morning, one of the most influential gardens of the 20th century. The gardens are laid out in a series of rooms each having its own individual theme and the green walls are created from beautifully clipped hedges. In the afternoon we visit Kiftsgate Court Garden well known for its ebullient colour themed borders and the rambling ‘Kiftsgate’ rose. 

Day 5: A free day to relax in the Country House or explore the local area

Day 6: Our morning visit is to Batsford Arboretum where we will see the wonderful collection of trees and shrubs from China and Japan that were planted by the diplomat, Lord Resesdale.

In the afternoon we go to Asthall Manor, overlooking the Windrush valley. The gardens have been designed by Isobel and Julian Bannerman and provide a fine setting for some beautiful stone sculptures.

Day 7: This morning we visit Bourton House Garden where deep herbaceous borders are filled with colour, forms and textures and exotic plants are used to create exciting container planting.

After lunch we visit Sudelely Castle where the wonderfully romantic ruins create a backdrop for the beautiful borders, rose garden, scented arbours and knot garden.

Day 8: Depart after breakfast.

Autumn tour

Day 1: Arrival day. Your room will be available from 2.30pm onwards. Please join us for tea between 4pm and 5pm to meet the leader and your fellow guests.

Before dinner there will be a brief introduction to the holiday programme.

7.30pm Dinner

Day 2: Our first garden visit will be to Dyrham Park where the William and Mary House sits in a landscape and gardens influenced by London, Wise and Repton in turn. The extensive landscape style, featuring a deer park, will be enveloped with mature trees making their transit from summer to winter.

We will spend the afternoon at Westonbirt, the National Arboretum. Run by the Forestry Commission and set in what was originally a Victorian picturesque-style setting, this arboretum site includes 16,000 trees from around the world, including 125 different maple, hickory and some stunning trees not only giving colour but fragrance at this time of year. There are 17 miles of paths through the Arboretum. We won't cover them all but we will see many brilliant specimens.      

Day 3: We visit the Oxford University Arboretum. Even though it is a part of the Botanical Gardens of the University it is flowing, rather than the more regimented formal botanical gardens in the city. This will be a good place to take a more relaxed walk through the trees and find a few conkers and nuts after a busier visit to Westonbirt the day before.

In the afternoon we visit Hidcote, the famous garden of rooms (and more colour) created by American Lawrence Johnston in the 20th century.  

Day 4: Batsford Arboretum bills itself as the nation's favourite arboretum and you will be in a position to consider this jewel of yellows, golds, reds and greens. Our final visit will be to Painswick, a Rococo style garden set in a wooded area. The Rococo style with its follies, frivolity and eccentricity is also a rare gem with few parallels and then only generally on the continent.

Day 5: Depart after breakfast.