Day 1
We depart from Newcastle, Edinburgh or Glasgow airport on a morning flight to Bristol. Upon arrival in Bristol we will join our coach and head south and west for Cornwall. We will break our journey by visiting the Lost Gardens of Heligan. The award winning gardens, asleep for more than seventy years, are the scene of the largest garden restoration project in Europe. In the spring of 1991, the Gardens of Heligan lay under a blanket of bramble, ivy, rampant laurel and fallen timber. A year later the restoration team opened the gardens to enable the public to share in the excitement of their discovery.
We continue to our hotel, the comfortable Bay Hotel, Newquay (or similar) to arrive in time for dinner. All rooms have en suite facilities, hairdryer, television and hospitality tray. The evening will be at leisure to relax.
Day 2
Today following our full English breakfast we will travel to Boconnoc, the late-18th century landscape garden which is the superb setting for the Cornwall Garden Society's Spring Flower Show. This classic English flower show is noted for its range of impressive floral displays and keenly fought competitions, along with trade stands and plant sales, exhibitions and sideshows.
Our next visit is to Lanhydrock Gardens. Now the property of the National Trust, Lanhydrock was the home of the Robartes family from 1620 until 1953. The magnificent seventeenth century house is surrounded by nineteenth century formal terraced gardens which formed part of a scheme of improvements overseen by George Gilbert Scott in 1857. Beyond the terraced gardens are areas of informal pleasure grounds which were developed from the mid nineteenth century with many choice trees and shrubs. The parkland with the famous beech avenue was first enclosed in the mid seventeenth century, and remains one of the finest examples in Cornwall. Lanhydrock Gardens also feature a formal courtyard garden and a woodland garden.
We return to our hotel in time for dinner.
Day 3
Today, following breakfast, we will travel to the exciting Eden Project, near St Austell. The Eden Project is a 50 metre deep, 34 acre china clay pit which has been reclaimed and transformed to house 2 controlled environment plant conservatories, the larger of which recreates the climate of the Tropics and displays some of its plants such as cotton, rice, rubber, orchids, bamboo and rainforest flowers. At its highest point it reaches 50 metres, taller than Nelson’s Column. The second conservatory recreates a warm temperature climate and houses plants from Southern Africa, the Mediterranean and south western America, with orange trees, olives, grape vines and hundreds of colourful flowers. The great attraction at this time of year, however, is the Bulb Mania Festival, a spectacular horticultural display involving over a million bulbs which have been laboriously planted by the Eden team, sometimes in surprising places such as the steep slopes of the Mediterranean Outdoors area, with the result that tulips and daffodils appear among the spiky exotics of the Med. Other bulbs include hyacinths and early-flowering narcissi from the Scilly Isles.
Our last visit today is to the remarkable Pine Lodge Gardens. Set in 30 acres of parkland Pine Lodge boasts a pinetum arboretum, a marsh garden and many rare and tender plants. The plants are labelled for easy identification. Dinner is served at the hotel in the evening.
Day 4
Sadly today we must return home, but we have time for one more visit this morning. Trewithen’s reputation amongst connoisseurs of gardens has always been of the highest but it is only recently that its great beauty and horticultural importance has become known to a wider public. Despite the loss of many mature trees in the great storm of 1979, it remains very much a woodland garden designed on the grand scale, with evidence of the great age of plant collecting to be found everywhere. Many of the flowering trees and shrubs were grown from seed sent from China, Burma and Assam and are now bigger than their parent plants, having flourished in the mild damp Cornish climate. From the South Lawn, smooth gently curving paths lead into numerous bays and glades, full of spectacular blooms and constantly offering new vistas and glimpses to tempt you on. From very early spring there is dramatic colour to be enjoyed in the huge Magnolias and the vast array of Camellias.
Following our visit we will return to Bristol Airport for the evening EasyJet flight to Edinburgh, Newcastle or Glasgow, where on arrival the group will disperse.