Gardens to Visit
Attingham Park, Atcham, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY4 4TP The Pleasure Grounds of this magnificent 18th-century house are being restored and there is a Mile Walk where swathes of snowdrops and spring flowers can now be seen. Blickling Hall, Blickling, Norwich, Norfolk NR11 6NF Carpets of bluebells can be enjoyed in the extensive acres of gardens and woodlands that surround this Jacobean house. Other attractions include an orangery, parterre, wilderness and secret garden. Hardwick, Doe Lea, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S44 5QJ Built in the 16th century and boasting “more glass than wall”, the beautiful mansion is surrounded by parkland and gardens. Spring brings a succession of flowers including snowdrops, daffodils, aconites, iris and wood anemones. Sizergh Castle, near Kendal, Westmorland LA8 8DZ One of the longest family-inhabited houses in the country, this medieval property boasts superb gardens that have a wide range of springtime interest from tulips in the formal garden to cherry blossom in the orchard and wild flowers in the meadow.
‘I must have flowers, always, and always.’ — Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) ‘ A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.’ — Gertrude Jekyll (1843 – 1932) ‘The more help a person has in his garden, the less it belongs to him.’ — W. H. Davies (1871 – 1940)