D1 Wednesday, 25 June

RHS Wisley

The tour starts from the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, where Tim will meet you at 10 am and, once we’re loaded, we’ll set off to RHS Wisley for an extended visit to this world-class, inspirational garden.

RHS Garden Wisley is both the headquarters of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and its flagship garden (there are four others). It is one of the great gardens of the world and you will have plenty of time to explore the whole site – including its famous bookshop!

From Wisley, we drive into Kent, to The Queen’s Inn, Hawkhurst, our hotel for the next three nights, arriving in good time to check in before drinks and dinner at the hotel.

D2 Thursday, 26 June

Pashley Manor & Sissinghurst

Staying close to home, we start the day at Pashley Manor, an 11-acre English Country Garden par excellence. One of our customers’ favourite gardens and, with its sweeping lawns, well-planted borders, box hedges, historic walled garden and majestic trees, it’s easy to see why.

We’ll have lunch at Pashley and then set off for the afternoon at Sissinghurst Castle, a name known to gardeners the world over.

Created in the 1930s, by husband-and-wife team Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West, the gardens have stood the test of time and, unsurprisingly, Sissinghurst is time and again one of Britain's best-loved gardens. We’ll have the whole afternoon at Sissinghurst before retiring to the nearby Three Chimneys, a pub we’ve known for over twenty years, for drinks and dinner.

D3 Friday, 27 June

Walmer Castle & Goodnestone

We spend today in southeast Kent, starting with a visit to Walmer Castle, one of the many Tudor coastal forts built to keep out the Spanish and French! Walmer is also the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, an office held by the late Queen Mother, and she had a garden designed for her in the grounds.

After lunch, at Walmer, we drive inland for an afternoon’s visit to Goodnestone Park, a romantic garden, once home to Jane Austen's brother, Edward. There is much to see and admire at Goodnestone, not least a superb collection of trees, a triple-bay walled garden, an admirable situation and, as we will discover in the café, some exceedingly good cakes!

We’ll drive along the North Downs, stopping to enjoy the views, and across Romney Marsh, for a walk around Rye and dinner at the Landgate Bistro.

D4 Saturday, 28 June

Great Dixter & Scotney Castle

Our day starts at Great Dixter with an early private opening, an hour before the gates open to the general public. Dixter’s gardens are magnificent, bountiful and inspirational at every turn. Created by Christopher Lloyd and maintained by him until his death in 2006, they are in the care of a team led by Fergus Garrett, Christopher Lloyd’s trusted lieutenant.

We leave Dixter for Scotney Castle for lunch and the first part of the afternoon. Parts of the Old Castle date to 1378, but the house is new, dating to 1837 and built by Edward Hussey from the same sandstone as the castle. Edward also oversaw the design of the picturesque landscape, with vistas across the estate framed by specimen trees and flowering shrubs. It is a romantic garden, ablaze with spectacular magnolias, rhododendrons and azaleas.

We leave Scotney and venture down to Beachy Head, to stretch our legs and take some photographs of the famous white cliffs, before arriving at our second hotel, in good time to check in before drinks and dinner.

D5 Sunday, 29 June

Arundel Castle & Parham House

We begin the day at Arundel Castle for a morning exploring the castle and its magnificent gardens. Founded by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel, at the end of the 11th century, Arundel is the family home and seat of the 18th Duke of Norfolk and one of the largest inhabited and complete castles in England.

We’ll have lunch in the wonderful market town outside the castle walls, before visiting Parham House, a most beautiful Elizabethan house in the most exquisite setting. The gardens comprise seven acres of Pleasure Grounds, laid out in the 18th century, and a wonderful four-acre Walled Kitchen Garden with wide herbaceous borders, a vegetable garden, roses and an orchard.

From Parham, we’ll cross the South Downs, stopping for photographs of the Weald and the ubiquitous paragliders at Devil’s Dyke, before descending – in every sense of the word – to Brighton for a stroll along the promenade and dinner at one of its many excellent eateries.

D6 Monday, 30 June

Nymans & Wakehurst Place

Today is all about the gardens. Two gardens, no houses and very little history! We start at Nymans, an extensive yet intimate garden set around romantic ruins. It is a plantsperson’s paradise, with rare and unusual plant collections, a wonderful 1920s-inspired Rose Garden and dramatic summer borders, all leading the eye to the beautiful Verona marble fountain.

After lunch, at Nymans, we’ll spend the rest of the day at Wakehurst Place, Kew’s place in the county, exploring their many collections. Created by Gerald Loder, who purchased the estate in 1903 and spent 33 years developing the gardens, and his successor, Sir Henry Price, it was left to the nation in 1963.

Also at Wakehurst is the Millennium Seed Bank whose aim is to collect seeds from all of the UK's native flora and conserve seeds from 25% of the world's flora, in the hope that this will save species from extinction.

We’ll have dinner at The Griffin Inn, in Fletching, en route home to our hotel.

D7 Tuesday, 1 July

Hever Castle & Chartwell

Our final day in the countryside starts at Hever Castle, the 13th-century childhood home of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I. More recently, Hever was home to William Waldorf Astor, a wealthy Anglo-American, who used his great fortune to restore and extend the Castle in the early 20th century, laying out the gardens between 1904 and 1908. You have the whole morning and early afternoon at Hever, with plenty of time to explore both the castle and its magnificent gardens.

Then to Chartwell, famously the family home of Winston and Clementine Churchill for forty years from when they bought it in 1922 until shortly before Chirchill’s death.

Churchill loved Chartwell, it was here that he could relax, away from the spotlight when in office, and where, when out of office, he could busy himself with writing, painting and building brick walls. In or out of office, it was always a family home and a place of entertainment.

We leave the Kent countryside for the London suburbs and The Petersham, our hotel for the final two nights of the tour. We’ll arrive in plenty of time to check in and walk into town for dinner at A Cena.

D8 Wednesday, 2 July

Hampton Court Palace & Garden Festival

Today is something of a game of two halves. The RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is, as the name suggests, in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, but entrance to the Palace is separate. The Garden Festival runs for six days, from Tuesday to Sunday, with Tuesday and Wednesday set aside for members of the RHS. You will have Members’ Day Only entry and tickets to the Palace.

We’ll start at the Festival, widely thought of as ‘Chelsea-with-elbow-room’ because there is just so much more space than at Chelsea and, though it was very much looked down upon when it first started, it has evolved into its own unique garden festival – a bonanza of glorious gardens and fabulous flowers! It’s great fun.

The Palace is a bit older. Cardinal Wolsey built Hampton Court Palace in the early 16th century, but Henry VIII took it from him. Fast forward to 1689, when William III and Mary II took the throne, they commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to build an elegant new baroque palace. Later still, Georgian kings and princes occupied the splendid interiors and, when the royals left in 1737, impoverished 'grace and favour' aristocrats moved in.

It will be up to you when, or if, you visit the Palace, but we will all meet up at an agreed time and location and head back to The Petersham for a special end-of-tour dinner.

D9 Thursday, 3 July

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Our final garden is Kew Gardens, a rather rash, if optimistic, decision to visit the home of the largest and most diverse botanical collection in the world on the final morning, but they are on our doorstep and we can’t drive past.

Dating to 1840, the living collections include some of the 27,000 taxa, the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens, the library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants.

It is an extraordinary place and, despite its 330 acres, you will get around much of it and have time for some lunch before we return to the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, where the tour ends.

If you are staying in the UK and don't need, or wish, to return to Heathrow, then please let us know your onward travel plans, so that we may assist you in getting to your next destination.