Gardens worth visiting in Sept?

Did you try to Google Top Gardens in Cornwall? Quite a few lists and descriptions pop up, including several that are very well known.

I liked both the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the (busier) Eden Project. I visited them in August rather than September, however.

I agree with acraven - I liked Lost Gardens of Heligan. I was there in October 2017 and it was excellent even at that time of year. I was on a Road Scholar tour and we only had about 3 hours here which was not enough. Lots to see and a LOT still blooming!

I actually liked this garden better than Kew. I loved the planted areas here with the Kitchen Garden and various specialty cultivated areas. In October they had lots of gourd/squash decorations which were fun.

I also visited Lanhydrock Gardens on a Rick Steves tour. It has a house to tour as well but TBH I was pretty much over houses at that point, lol. I did not like these as well as Heligan.

editing to add: I had to go back and check my pictures to make sure this was the right place, lol, but Heligan has a cool specimen of a Douglas-fir. It was planted from a seed brought back by David Douglas from an expedition to the US in 1826 or so. The tree is named after him and he introduced it into cultivation.

Glendurgan, Trelissick, Trengwainton - three lovely gardens in Cornwall, all owned/managed by the National Trust.

If you haven't been to St. Michael's Mount, you might enjoy seeing the gardens there. We were told that the mild climate enables plants to grow there that are not otherwise seen north of the Mediterranean. The overall experience of the island is really magical, IMO.

Thanks so much for the helpful suggestions. The Lost Gardens of Heligan are now at the top of my list. Mount St. Michael is already in the plans, the garden there is a bonus. My husband is not as enthusiastic about gardens as I am so I want to choose carefully to make the journey enjoyable for both of us.

Trebah - I love this subtropical garden with the bonus of a beach on the Helford river at its end - http://www.trebahgarden.co.uk/garden/year-in-flower

Teresa, does your husband have an interest in WWI? One thing that I've found so shocking when touring UK was the devastating loss of almost a whole generation of young men during that war. It affected all areas of daily life and that is hard to grasp from what what most Americans learn about WWI in our school history classes. The gardens of Heligan were "lost" partially because their crew of gardeners went off to war in 1914 and only a third or so came back home. I found the project of the garden restoration fascinating too. To me this "history" part of the gardens, both the loss and restoration, gave it a deeper interest to me and perhaps that will draw in your husband as well.

https://www.heligan.com/the-story/introduction

Does he like to tour old industrial sites? There is a China Clay mine/musuem not too far from Heligan - maybe 10 miles or so. I am not big on industrial sites but I thought this one was interesting. It's in a more wooded area and that made it more interesting to me than the tin mines.

https://www.wheal-martyn.com/

Thanks Pam! As newly retired educators, my husband and I are VERY interested in places with historical interest. A special focus for this trip is sites with WW1 interest.