Garden tours growing in popularity

More and more people are picking their next vacation spot based on what over-the-top gardens they can visit while there

Istabelle Van Groeningen, a garden historian from the Royal Garden Academy in Berlin who leads group tours of England’s green oases.

Gardens that demand to be toured include not only the world-famous ones in southern England, such as Sissinghurst or Great Dixter, but also ones in the north. In May 2021, the so-far largest garden project in Europe is set to open near Manchester – the Royal Horticultural Society’s Bridgewater Garden spans some 62 hectares.

Germany is also a destination for garden lovers, with many of its historical green spaces being restored after laying fallow for many years following the devastation of World War II.

Eastern Germany has especially bloomed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Woerlitzer Park in the state of Saxony-Anhalt is a prime example, and doubtless one of Europe’s most beautiful landscapes in the English garden style. Based on its size and variety, visitors can easily spend the entire day strolling around this Arcadian space.

The Fuerst Pueckler Park in the state of Brandenburg, the Herrenhausen Gardens near Hanover and the private landscape park of the Schloss Dennenlohe in southern Germany are also popular stops.

If you’re planning for a organised garden tour by a tour operator, pay attention to which themes they focus on. Some tours, for example, are purely focused only on the botanical.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that a guide’s personality and experience go a long way in determining how accessible a garden is. Austrian garden journalist Karl Ploberger, for example, is well-known through his TV shows and publications, and spends about half of the year doing garden tours. “I’ve known many gardens for some two decades and can thus also talk about their development,” he says.

Regardless of how, with whom or where you take a garden trip, you should be fit enough to walk around for one to two hours, and stand still for long periods. In return, you’ll be rewarded with overwhelming splendour. – dpa

The lake pyramids at Fuerst Pueckler Park in eastern Germany are covered in wild vines.

The gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle in Meran, Italy, are famous around the world, attracting 400,000 visitors in the past year alone.

The garden of Claude Monet in France’s Giverny is world famous: The painter immortalised it in his paintings.