Gardens tours in the UK

Brightwater Holidays offer a range of short tours -https://www.brightwaterholidays.com/tours/garden-tours/
Disclaimer - I know nothing about Brightwater so it's not a recommendation, although I will know a number of the gardens visited.

Mark Seymour, a former RS guide, is offering 2 garden tours for 2025. They’ll be led by Lorraine Dineen who was along on my recent Seymout Travels tour of Northern England. She is awesome. Mark is awesome. His small group tours are awesome, lol. Ive signed up for another this year, one in 2024 and 2 in 2025!!

https://www.seymourtravels.co.uk/

I thought there had to be a company offering this service and a quick google threw up Sisley Garden Tours. Looks to be exactly what you’re after.

A friend sent me this information about 2 British ladies who own and run a tour company that does garden tours around the UK. Their email is [email protected]. Their 2024 are out now and they are lovely, a little too pricey for me. There were several I really wanted to go on but cannot justify the price. This may interest you.

Pam,
I’m so glad to hear about the 2025 Garden Tour being led by Lorraine Dineen. I will have to look up this tour!

Are you a member of any garden society at home? Sometimes tours are organized on a city, state or country level.

Judy, have you traveled with Lorraine? I should have mentioned she also is an RS guide. I’m not sure how many she’s doing this year for Rick. Lorraine lives in Gloucestershire and is very knowledgeable about flora and fauna. She’s also a big rambler. One of the days she was tagging along with our group we dropped her off so she could walk back to our country hotel while we did something else. The walk “home” was 10 miles, lol.

I also forgot that Road Scholar has a garden tour that includes the Chelsea Garden Show. I’d signed up for it for 2022 but canceled when I realized it’s a 40-person tour. That is just bigger than I want. I’m sure they divide you into groups in the gardens but it takes way too long for that many seniors to do confort stops and get fed. We were also just coming out of Covid last year and I didn’t want to be on a bus with that many people.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/22576/chelsea-flower-show-and-gardens-a-british-tradition

It looks like their 2024 tours are sold out but sometimes it’s possible to be waitlisted or you can watch for the release of the 2025 tours.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I am considering the option of hiring a driver or a local guide and planning my own visit. Any idea the cost of a driver for say two or three days? Or has anyone used a local guide in SE England? to tour gardens.....