Kent, Sussex & Surrey

An extravagance of riches…

This 9-day extravaganza of high summer gardens takes in some fifteen gardens across Kent, Sussex and Surrey and includes some of England’s finest and most famous gardens.

Rarely is there an opportunity to enjoy such a feast of horticultural bliss.

The tour is set against a daily backdrop of rolling English countryside at the height of summer and includes side trips to viewpoints, villages and sundry places of interest.

We stay in splendid accommodation. Two venerable and comfortable, historic inns and The Petersham Hotel, a famous Richmond landmark.

We eat well too, at our hotels and three favourite eateries!

D1 Monday, 22 June

Chartwell & Hever Castle

Tim will collect you from the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, immediately north of Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport, at 10:00. We’ll then drive to Chartwell, famously the family home of Winston and Clementine Churchill for forty years from when they bought it in 1922 until shortly before Churchill’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.

After lunch, at Chartwell, we’ll visit nearby 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’ll have plenty of time to explore both the castle and its magnificent gardens.

From Hever we drive south to the hilltop town of Rye and The Mermaid Inn, a historic hotel and our home for the next three nights, where we’ll arrive in good time to check in and relax before dinner at the hotel.

Today's driving is about 90 miles/145 km

D2 Tuesday, 23 June

Sissinghurst & Doddington

We start the day at Sissinghurst Castle, a name known to gardeners the world over. Created in the 1930s, by husband-and-wife Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West, the gardens have stood the test of time and, unsurprisingly, are frequently voted one of Britain's best-loved gardens.

After lunch, at Sissinghurst, we visit the gardens at Doddington Place, a new garden to us, but one we’ve been meaning to visit for some years.

Home of the Oldfield family for over a century, Markham Nesfield, the son of the better-known garden designer, William Nesfield, laid out part of the garden in 1873. But it was Mrs Jeffreys who was responsible for much of the architectural detail and layout of the gardens we see today.

Doddington Place is on the North Downs, a south-facing chalk escarpment, and we’ll drive along the Downs, following the ancient route of the Pilgrim’s Way – the route pilgrims took on their pilgrimage to Canterbury – stopping along the way, to Folkestone, for dinner at Little Rock, a fish restaurant on the coast.

Today's driving is about 100 miles/160 km

D3 Wednesday, 24 June

Great Dixter & Pashley Manor

Our day starts at Great Dixter with an early private opening, a golden 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 late morning to visit nearby Pashley Manor, for lunch and the early part of the afternoon at this glorious 11-acre English Country Garden par excellence. It is 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 take our leave mid-afternoon and return to Rye via a scenic drive across Romney Marsh and along the Royal Military Canal, a defensive canal built between 1804 and 1809 to hinder Napoleon’s army in the expected invasion.

This should give us the last couple of hours of the day to explore Rye, its cobbled streets, the hilltop church and its independent shops, before drinks and dinner at The Mermaid Inn.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D4 Thursday, 25 June

Wakehurst Place & Nymans

Leaving Rye, we drive across the High Weald for the morning at Wakehurst Place, Kew Garden’s country estate. Created by two gardeners, Gerald Loder, who purchased the estate in 1903 and spent 33 years developing the gardens, and Sir Henry Price, Loder’s successor, who left Wakehurst to the nation in 1963.

Also at Wakehurst is the Millennium Seed Bank which hides an underground collection of over 2.4 billion seeds from around the world. It aims to collect seeds from all of the UK's native flora and 25% of the world's flora, in the hope that this will save species from extinction.

We continue west, to 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.

Our final drive is to Midhurst and The Spread Eagle Hotel, a former coaching inn and our home for the next three nights, where we’ll arrive in good time to check in and relax before dinner at the hotel.

Today's driving is about 90 miles/145 km

D5 Friday, 26 June

Parham & Arundel Castle

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

Arundel is such a pretty market town and we’ll stay for lunch and take time to explore the community outside the castle walls.

We’ll spend the afternoon at Parham House, an exquisite Elizabethan house in the most beautiful 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 take the scenic route across the South Downs, a north-facing chalk escarpment, stopping for photographs as we go, to The Merry Harriers for dinner.

Today's driving is about 70 miles/110 km

D6 Saturday, 27 June

Petworth House & West Dean

Our day starts at nearby Petworth House, an extraordinary 17th-century house boasting a fine art collection, including works by Van Dyck, Turner and Gainsborough, and an 18th-century ‘Capability’ Brown-designed Pleasure Garden, complete with serpentine paths, formal beds and a woodland walk, all set in a 700-acre ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped park.

We’ll leave Petworth late morning for lunch and the early afternoon exploring the gardens at West Dean. Nestled at the foot of the South Downs, the gardens at West Dean are one of the great restored gardens of Southern England. It has an impressive collection of working Victorian Glasshouses and a superb walled kitchen garden.

West Dean, itself, is a school of arts, design and conservation and offers a range of courses. The house and family have an interesting history.

It’s our final evening evening at The Spread Eagle and we’ll return there in time for anyone who wishes to, to visit the hotel spa, before dinner and a relaxing evening.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D7 Sunday, 28 June

RHS Garden, Wisley & NGS

Once we have loaded the minibus, we’ll set off to RHS Garden, Wisley for an extended visit to this inspirational, world-class 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!

It’s Sunday, and, later in the afternoon, we may visit a private garden, courtesy of the National Garden Scheme (NGS).

In most years some 3,000 to 4,000 gardens – from small private gardens to grand public gardens – open their gates to the public and donate the entrance fee to the NGS. The funds go to nursing and gardening charities. To date, since the first gardens opened in 1927, over £74m has been raised.

We arrive at The Petersham, check in, turn around and walk into Richmond for dinner at A Cena, a fantastic Italian restaurant we have dined at for years. 

Today's driving is about 70 miles/110 km

D8 Monday, 29 June

Hampton Court Palace

We spend our penultimate day exploring Hampton Court Palace, inside and out.

Famously, Cardinal Wolsey built Hampton Court Palace in the early 16th century, but Henry VIII was jealous and took it from him. Fast forward to 1689, when William & Mary were on the throne and commissioned Christopher Wren (he of St Paul’s Cathedral fame) to build an elegant, baroque palace. Later still, Georgian kings and princes occupied the splendid interiors and, when the royals finally left, in 1737, impoverished 'grace and favour' aristocrats moved in.

It’s a fantastic place with much to see.

Late afternoon we’ll meet up and return to Richmond by Thames Riverboat. The river between Hampton Court and Richmond is a particularly fine stretch of the Thames and it is, in any case, a thoroughly pleasurable way of whiling away an hour or two, on a late June afternoon.

We’ll finish the day with a special end-of-tour dinner at The Petersham.

Today's driving is about 30 miles/50 km

D9 Tuesday, 30 June

RBG, Kew

Our final garden is the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, known universally and more familiarly as Kew Gardens.

Kew boasts one of the largest and most diverse botanical collections in the world and its standing in the horticultural world is second-to-none. 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.

Despite its vast size, you will get to see a lot of it, and have time for lunch, before we return to the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, where the tour ends, at about 14:30.

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.

Today's driving is about 20 miles/30 km