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.