Any 7-10 day English Garden Tour companies you recommend?

Sorry, Jean, I wish I could help but we only go round on our own so don't know.

I think you are right about May rather than April, if you can swing it.

Mrs Nigel and I often are making the rounds in May, unless we are in Switzerland or Germany.

Do you have options for the Portugal tour?

The Mark Seymour tour would have a more hands-on personable experience and a small group - 10 or less.

The Garden Tours has about 16 people- still a very nice size.

For the options so far & timing with my 2027 RS Portugal tour, the Garden Tours company tour will start after the Portugal tour ends in May. The Mark Seymour tour would begin before the Portugal tour & begin in April.

When we were at the Chelsea flower show in May, there were busloads of tourists on the Road Scholar tour.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/22576/Chelsea-Flower-Show-and-Gardens-A-British-Tradition

Thanks for the reply, Derek! It sounds very popular if they have that many buses! It looks like those are all sold out for 2027. I noticed they have almost all of their lunches & dinners as group meals, so I would be heading out on my own for more variety & less togetherness all day if I did that one a different year.

Jean, I signed up for that RS program a few years ago but had to do it 2 years out because it sells quickly especially the single supplement rooms. I cancelled a few months later when I realized it was a fairly big group and you know that's not my thing.

Jean, I'm thinking that Mark's tour ticks a lot of boxes. The itinerary looks great.

Jean, I know of one other tour company with a garden tour (8 days and the south of England): https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/tours/great-gardens-of-southern-england

Someone I know went on a different tour with them, but loved the tour and the company. I checked and it has an excellent reputation. Obviously, I don't have personal knowledge but thought I would add this to the mix.

I'm jealous! That sounds like a wonderful idea to take a garden tour!

Hi Jean,
I've traveled with Sisley Garden Tours in the Lake District and Yorkshire. They do tours in a variety of regions and offer Chelsea Flower Show options. They're an excellent company. I was with a group, and they ran a bespoke tour for us using DH Tours out of Toronto as the broker. They already have limited availability for 2027.

https://dhgrouptours.com/coach-tours-rail-tours/sisley-garden-tours-uk/
https://www.sisley.co.uk/

Wow, thank you for the additional ideas! I contacted Mark’s company, and that specific tour is full.

I’ll check into your other options this evening. If none of them work, this might be a 2028 tour, and I go back to adding independent days in France or Italy after the Portugal tour.

Mardee & Rachel, thank you for those names! Wow, I love a good English garden, and these possibilities are amazing! This may be a 2028 plan, so I can concentrate on the gardens and maybe add Bath & southern Wales before or afterwards.

I need to stay away from Oxford, the Cotswolds region, northern Wales, Chester & York because that was my 45th anniversary trip locations. I don’t want to mess with the fantastic celebratory memories we made during that trip by seeing it again by myself. Fortunately, there’s garden tours that head south.

You might check the Royal Oak Foundation, the US arm of the National Trust, which has a robust tour program. I also get mailings for garden tours from Brightwater Holidays. I haven't traveled with either organization so don't have personal experience.

Also check the American Horticultural Society and the larger regional plant societies like Northwest Horticultural Society, Hardy Plant Society, etc.

You might also check the gardening magazines. I know that RHS magazine has advertisements for all sorts of tours.

One of the people who has organized garden society tours also runs a few of her own. She's on insta at
lois.moss.gardens.tours. There's a link to her site and current tour on instagram. I think it's wetravel.com

I haven't taken any of them (I'm a growly curmudgeon in the morning before the coffee kicks in) but I know people who have. One garden blogger in particular has posted pictures from the recent tours on his blog "Dirt Therapy" by Philip Oliver.

Your answers have been so wonderful and changed my mind! Instead of tacking on a garden tour at the end of the RS Portugal tour next year, I’m going to wait to do one in May/June 2028 when I don’t have grandkids graduating from high school/college in early June.

glad you've found a good solution, Jean

Jean, did you find a tour/company that appeals to you?

Grier, I am going to wait until the 2028 tours open up - probably in Fall and book one from these listed in your replies. I really like the size of the Mark Seymour tours, but I want to be in the gardens ideally late May/early June and his go a month earlier. So timing of the options, size of the group (smaller is better) plus specific gardens will determine the final one.

Several of these looked very nice and many with special hotels/homes that are nicer than I typically choose. This will be the highlight of that trip vs. just tacking it on to a RS tour.

I really like the size of the Mark Seymour tours, but I want to be in the gardens ideally late May/early June and his go a month earlier.

Jean, I was surprised by that. I like your dates a lot better for a garden. Especially since it would get you to the Chelsea Garden Show!

In truth the end of May and early June can be a bit of a gap in English gardens - it’s after the Spring flowers and a bit early for Summer ones. I presume that’s the reason for the Seymour tour being earlier. Of course, with the current unpredictability of the climate any given year could bring flowering earlier or later anyway.

Chelsea is the third week of May so if late May means the last week you will miss it. Which, in my honest opinion, would be a bonus.

Johnew52, I’m looking back at my TripIt entries, and my husband & I were at Kiftsgate Garden on June 5 and Bodnant Gardens on June 8 among other gardens we visited. The blooms were gorgeous & the roses were spectacular! This next trip would be in the gardens in the southern part of the UK. Ideally what weeks would you recommend I try to focus on, knowing it could be different in 2028?

I was in England in late-May in 1999 and still remember (and have photos of) all the gorgeous flowers that were blooming then. It was truly magnificent.

@Jean, I think that Mark Seymour knows what he is doing.

The seasons are getting even more wonky with the changing climate. I have been a bit non plussed the last two years with what has been said on the forum about the apparent lateness of the gardens in London and the South East, because they have been reported on here as being many weeks later than we are achieving 300 miles north in the Lake District.
In my innocence I would have expected it to be the other way around.

Now I am a very amateur gardener at a tiny little Community garden but we are a multi Green Flag award winning garden (the only such garden in the whole of Cumbria)- a distinction we share with Seward Park in Seattle (on my cancelled trip this year one of my stops was to be at Seward Park). While Seward Park is on an utterly different scale, our Green Flag judge this year was from Kew Gardens, so we got a good grilling and inspection from someone with knowledge and skills we will never have- but we also got very valuable learning tips from him.

It is just a bit nerve wracking to get a judge from Kew!! And we aren't in it for awards (nice as they are) but the difference to the community. Having said that I can't deny that awards day is a key date in my Calendar.

We are planting to achieve colour all the way through from very early Spring (February with luck) to late Autumn (early November with luck), a part of that is with varietal roses throughout the season. This week we have been judged by Britain in Bloom (as part of an entry for the whole town)- they will have seen a very different garden than when Green Flag came.

Obviously you will see different things with Mark (even in the same garden) than you will with garden tours a few weeks later (the same as you will do in our humble little garden), but I honestly can't see that it will be any less good.

Ultimately it depends what you are expecting to see in a garden, as regards to when you come.

What you will miss seeing on a Guided Tour is the National Garden Scheme gardens- private gardens open for a few days a year- which can be the match to any public garden, and are raising money for Charity. They are all across the UK.

The starting point will be whether you want to see Spring flowers or Summer ones. The best of the former will be usually early in May and from mid June for Summer plants.. But there will always be flowers to see through the season and I guess they will look impressive at any time to someone not from the UK anyway.

This year the roses in particular were out early in our garden in Preston, which is pretty close to the geographic centre of the UK and close to the coast, so mild. Who knows what 2028 will bring. For a number of years before the pandemic we opened our garden for a local event in mid June (nor NGS) and it was always a lottery as to what would be out on the day. There was always interest but often the garden looked better a week or two later.

One of my "dream trips" involves me plunking myself down in some sort of cpmveniently located holiday cottage property for about 3 months with a leased car, RHS, Heritage, and National Trust memberships and doing nothing but garden tours...

In reality, I'd ruin my own garden by not being there all season, not to mention being so severely outclassed by seeing ALL of the legendary gardens, but I still kind of daydream about it. I'm still going to do some kind of (probably imdependent) UK garden tour someday though.

Wanderbug, that’s a great “dream trip”! My yard will never look like one of those gorgeous English gardens nor do I want to contemplate the amount of constant work to upkeep the look. : ). But, I love to stroll through the gardens & just absorb the beauty & feeling from being among the flowers or a green shady garden.

Just noticed this Q. A company not mentioned that have some tours that focus on gardens is Noble Caledonia. They mainly do small ship cruising (sometimes with a focus on gardens) but they also do a few trips staying in hotels which focus on gardens too.

https://www.noble-caledonia.co.uk/voyages-and-tours/garden-tours-%26-cruises

https://www.noble-caledonia.co.uk/voyages-and-tours/uk-escorted-garden-tours

They can be pretty expensive, but all meals and excursions are included.

I have done 3 trips with them, tho' on their ships - around Scotland, around Ireland and a trip to the lesser Channel Islands and to the Scilly Islands - all of them excellent.

You can sign up for their emails to get details of future trips as they are released.

Thank you, Katy, for those links! I went off into a tangent looking at some of their other options. : )

They have a 1-week tour of Lake Maggiore, staying slightly north of Stresa. That’s my “go to” place for a few days each time I fly into Malpensa. Their hotel is extravagant and looks out at tiny Isola Bella where I move to my last evening before departing that area. I’ve enjoyed each of the gardens they mention.

And for their Ireland garden tour, they state Powerscourt as the highlight. They also go to the Russborough House. I have a pastel painting 1-week class in Ireland soon, and we will be painting/sketching at both of those locations!

I’ll get back on track and look at the English tours. : )

....... Their hotel is extravagant .....

They are pretty high end on everything, but sometimes i'd rather spend more on one holiday if I know i'm really going to enjoy it :).

And, for me, retired and living in the UK, I can sometimes jump on their "deals" - if you sign up to their emails, from time to time, you will get an email with offers on some of the trips that haven't sold out. These "deals" are when they don't sell out one of their trips and usually a few months before they take place. The prices then can be really competitive.

But I just love a lot of their itineraries.

Jean,
Yes, I just enjoy being in gardens, too. I always think oh I'll really study this one! But, when I get there I find I just want to experience them. They're also kind of a nice "palate refresher" after lots of art and museums.

Where is your class in Ireland? There's a really neat garden on the big peninsula north of Dublin
It's called Ardàn Garden. I just watched a webinar about it Very nice!

Here's their website:
https://www.ardangarden.com/

Wanderbug, my Ireland painting class location is at Enniskerry. I’m very excited about it! We have a morning demo class most of the days and go out for plein air painting locations in the afternoons - a seaside town, Powerscourt Garden, etc. plus 1-2 days at some art & history highlights in Dublin. The class size is around 10 - perfect! Her birthday occurs during this week, so we have a fun pub celebration, too.

Originally I had signed up for her similar class in Italy next year in the Le Marche region. This one had an opening a few months ago, so now I have two of these trips! : ). My skill improvement during the Ireland trip will help my Italy paintings next year,

Jean, that sounds like a great trip, or, well, trips. I can tell you are really excited about them! I don't think I know enough about pastel painting to say anything very insightful here, but I really like the idea of a creative trip like this.

Jean,

This isn't a garden you will get on an organised tour. but I've seen today about Wrest Park in Bedfordshire- https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wrest-park/

While there is an elegant French style chateau there, it's the gardens which are the big drawing point apparently.

So I did some research for you, and it is very easy to reach- it is under a mile from the village of Silsoe- which has an hourly bus, #MK1 from Milton Keynes Railway Station, Luton Railway Station and Luton Airport.

It came to my attention this morning because my South London colleague was passing on the A6 returning from vacation at Woburn, saw the sign, did some research and found out it was used as a WW1 Military Hospital (as so many of the grand houses were) and has an attached love story (and a side story of J M Barrie of Peter Pan Fame)- https://museu.ms/article/details/106972/wrest-park-reveals-a-first-world-war-love-story-that-lasted-a-lifetime#:~:text=A%20memorial%20bench%20now%20sits,Park%20become%20a%20military%20hospital.

(Her mind is like mine, in going off on wild tangents).

Doubtless Nigel will know more than I do, about the gardens. My interest is the wartime stuff!!

Thank you, Isn31c! The gardens do look stunning!

Wrest Park is lovely! That's a Capability Brown-designed garden. The house, which is relatively small, is empty but has some nice period features and wall designs still. We happened to visit around St George's Day (23 April) and they had quite a lot of special events going on- demonstrations of traditional crafts, falconry, food/drink stalls- depending when you visit you may catch that as well. Very easy to get there on a direct bus from Luton.

Wrest Park is not terribly far from me but enough inconvenient that we don't spend more time there.

They have both formal parterre and other formal gardens, and significant amounts of "wild" woods, very nice water feature although with this summer I presume it must be dry (sad), convenient parking (very for blue badge), and a small cafe and shop.

We are always there for the excellent tulip gardens, and quite impressive Wisteria - this year no exception. We haven't visited since Spring because of the heat waves which came immediately after cold and wet this year.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Wrest Park for the gardens.

There are steps involved in getting into the house so we've never been inside. There are a couple of other structures in the grounds which are good for a squint but not much more - they are there as emphasis points in the garden and for the lake.

They usually have a little electric buggy taking folks with need around most parts of the grounds.

I highly recommend the small group tours offered by European Experiences. They base their garden tours in the lovely Cotswolds. You stay in one inn right in the center of Chipping Camden, the meals are great and each day you do short excursions. Besides the magnificent gardens, you also visit some wonderful historic sights. With only 14 or less people on each tour, it’s a perfect personalized approach. Openings are available in 2027 on several dates in June. Highly recommend!

I really enjoyed my tour with Brightwater Holidays a couple of years ago, went to the Chelsea Flower Show and and another RHS garden, Sissinghurst, Hestercombe, The Bishop’s Palace garden in Wells, as well as the garden at Great Dexter, Stourhead House and Garden, and Chippenham. It was a great value and got me to places that are not easy to access on my own.