WANDER IN Wonder

Discover more about the first-class design and planting inspiration on offer at the exquisite Cotswold gardens plotted on the previous pages

These delightful, quintessentially English gardens are brimming with inspiration and ideas to replicate at home, providing plenty of food for mind and soul. So why not pay them a visit this year, soaking up each location’s individual heritage, setting and standout features to discover exactly what makes each one so special.

SNOWSHILL: Intimate Arts and Crafts garden

The result of a collaboration with artist and Arts and Crafts architect Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865–1945), the garden at Snowshill Manor is enchanting and highly personal. A peaceful place to savour the seasons, the former farmyard was lovingly transformed in the 1920s into a series of evocative garden ‘rooms’, each imbued with a sense of mystery leading into another. Tempting vistas at the end of terraces and intriguing doors, steps and gateways encourage visitors to explore and discover the many varied architectural treasures that are carefully incorporated throughout the setting. Many features, including the dovecote and cow byres, were attentively restored, reviving traditional building skills and methods, with one becoming a well-loved outdoor dining room.

Snowshill, Broadway, Gloucestershire

WR12 7JU

Tel 01386 852410 nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshill-manor-and-garden Open from 14 March to 30 October all week, plus weekends in November

WESTONBIRT, THE NATIONAL ARBORETUM: Rare and majestic trees from across the globe

Dating back 200 years and spanning 600 acres, Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is home to 2,500 different tree species and five national collections. Established in 1829 by Robert Holford (1808–1892), it features exotic tree varieties that were first discovered on global plant-hunting trips he sponsored. Arranged aesthetically, it was initially divided by three main rides, but later spread across the valley into the existing mature woodland. See spectacular displays of rhododendrons and maples, and trees such as sapphire dragon tree and Madeira mountain ash that appear as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red list.

Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8QS Tel 0300 067 4890 forestryengland.uk/westonbirt-thenational-arboretum

Open every day except Christmas Day

HIDCOTE: Influential, charming garden rooms

Set amongst the rolling Cotswold hills, these elegant Art and Crafts gardens have inspired many significant others, and are known across the world. Hidcote comprises a collection of smaller gardens bisected by long, open walkways and vistas. The exquisite White Garden is known to have inspired Vita Sackville-West’s larger design at Sissinghurst in Kent, while The Old Garden, dominated by a stately Cedar of Lebanon, features a soft palette of subtle pinks, mauves and light blues. The property was bought at auction in 1907 and early garden designs were predominantly formal and circled the manor house. As more adjoining land was bought, the gardens became less tightly structured, flowing effortlessly into the wooded wilderness and the farmland beyond.

Hidcote Bartrim, near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire GL55 6LR

Tel 01386 438333 nationaltrust.org.uk/hidcote

Open from 12 February to 30 October all week, plus weekends in November to 18 December

PAINSWICK ROCOCO GARDEN: Meandering idyll filled with eccentric retreats

Designed as a ‘fanciful pleasure garden’, the interweaving pathways and wooded glades of Painswick Rococo Garden make it the perfect place to sit, socialise and reconnect with nature. Created in the eighteenth century as a venue for lavish parties and carefree living, the garden was well known and admired by many key society figures. Overtly romantic in style, the grounds are peppered with secluded seating areas and intimate follies, many painted in pastel shades with high Gothic architectural details. Spectacles not to be missed include the Exedra Garden in early summer with its sweet williams, fragrant heritage roses, and the Coach House in May adorned with dreamy wisteria.

Painswick, Gloucestershire GL6 6TH

Tel 01452 813204 rococogarden.org.uk

Open Wednesday to Sunday from 1 March to 30 September

Open daily during school holidays from 9 to 24 April, 28 May to 5 June, 22 July to 4 September and 22 to 30 October Open Thursday to Sunday in October, and Friday to Sunday in November ►

BELOW Arranged in the ‘picturesque’ manner, the many rare trees at Westonbirt, The National Arboretum originate from planthunting trips to Africa and Asia.

TOP Well Court and Sancta Maria Byre at Snowshill Manor and Garden. ABOVE Steps and gate leading into Well Court in June at Snowshill Manor and Garden.

TOP Positioned close to the house, The Old Garden at Hidcote combines abundant herbaceous borders with a sense of mystery and intrigue.

MIDDLE RIGHT Narrow openings in dense yew hedging form a series of garden rooms at Hidcote.

RIGHT Delight in the many secret nooks and follies of Painswick Rococo Garden. Gothic detailing enhances the fanciful feel.