We've completely revised and updated our list of the finest of them all.
More from the Country Life Top 100:
- Best architects in Britain
- Best interior designers in Britain
- Best country house specialists in Britain
Angela Collins Garden Design
Angela ‘Angel’ Collins specialises in creating delightful gardens with romantic planting combined with crisp architectural lines and elegant symmetry. She is particularly in demand for garden designs at historic country houses, currently including an estate in the Surrey Hills, ongoing work at Bruern Abbey in Oxfordshire, a Jacobean house in the Cotswolds and a handsome house in Northamptonshire, where she has recently finished a vegetable garden with raised beds filled with annual meadow flowers, cabbages, asparagus and artichokes.
Other projects for this Warwickshire firm include gardens for new-build houses in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire and a London garden, on which she is working with her newly qualified designer son, Johnnie.
07876 592440; www.angelacollins.co.uk
Angus Thompson
Oxfordshire-based Angus Thompson is known for quietly contemporary garden design, combining an elegant simplicity and deep knowledge of plants. Focusing on gardens for both modern and period houses across Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and London, he will unveil his first Main Avenue garden at RHS Chelsea in May.
01865 552446; www.angusthompsondesign.com
Arabella Lennox-Boyd
Arabella Lennox-Boyd counts some of Britain’s most beautiful private gardens in her portfolio. Lady Lennox-Boyd blends 50 years of experience with a deep knowledge of planting, creating mostly formal Italianate romantic-style gardens from her London base. She was appointed CBE for services to horticulture and charity in The King’s Birthday Honours 2025.
020–7931 9995; www.arabellalennoxboyd.com
Balston Agius
Balston Agius is run by Marie-Louise Agius, renowned for her horticultural knowledge and passion for rare trees and shrubs. A director of Exbury Gardens in Hampshire and RHS judge and chairman of the RHS Woody Expert Group, she heads a Wiltshire practice known for working in harmony with the surroundings on country estates and large-scale landscape remodelling.
01380 848181; www.balstonagius.co.uk
Butter Wakefield
An expert in creating country charm in the city, Butter Wakefield heads a small studio in west London, taking on work across the capital and the South. Her enchanting designs brimming with plants are the recipients of many awards, the most recent of which is the 2025 BALI Principal and Grand Awards for a project in East Sussex, set across five acres and the studio’s biggest project to date.
07973 516149; www.butterwakefield.co.uk
Cameron
Well known for creating inviting family gardens both in London and the country, Alasdair Cameron founded his London-based practice in 1992; his wife, Tori, works with him. Imaginatively designed seating and entertaining areas ensure that gardens are developed with indoor-outdoor living in mind. Naturalistic planting with year-round interest is a forté, together with a strong sense of colour, thoughtful structure and an ability to deliver atmospheric gardens underpinned by a harmonious sense of place.
020–8969 3399; www.camerongardens.co.uk
Dan Pearson
Dan Pearson is celebrated for his work as a landscape designer, horticulturist and writer and is the 2025 Society of Garden and Landscape Designers Lifetime Achievement Award winner. He is known worldwide and especially in Japan for designing the Tokachi Millennium Forest.
Admired for the naturalistic feel of his planting, using perennial plants, grasses and native trees, he and his studio have recently completed phase two of the Delos Garden at Sissinghurst in Kent and phase one of the Goodwood Art Foundation in West Sussex, which opened in May 2025. Other projects include Play Earth Park, a 100-acre public Nature and adventure play park in Toyama, Japan, and the ongoing development of the masterplan for the future of Beth Chatto Gardens in Essex.
020–7928 3800; www.danpearsonstudio.com
Emily Erlam Studio
The television producer-turned-landscape designer Emily Erlam founded her London-based studio in 2010, earning a reputation for designs that exist in harmony with their surroundings, with a light, airy feel and relaxed, natural style. Having recently com-pleted designs at the Hambledon Vineyard in Hampshire and inns in the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales, the studio is working on the Chatsworth House historic West Terrace private garden in Derbyshire and designs for period villas in London. The Dungeness garden at The Experimental Station in Kent is showcased in The Contemporary Garden (published by Phaidon) and a rooftop garden in King’s Cross, London N1, is featured in Pastoral Gardens (Montgomery Press).
07973 419097; www.erlamstudio.com
Harris Bugg Studio
Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg have been described as ‘pioneering design talents of their generation’ by Marcus Chilton, curator of RHS Garden Bridgewater in Manchester. It would be hard to disagree: the pair’s work spans private estates, historic and conservation landscapes and contemporary city spaces, each garden characterised by intelligent planting and soulful resonance, deeply rooted in place. The studio, with bases in London, Devon and Scotland, is currently leading the major restoration and planting revitalisation of eco-Brutalist masterpiece the Barbican Conservatory, London EC2.
0330 223 6496; www.harrisbugg.com
I & J Bannerman
Isabel and Julian Bannerman are known for quintessentially English gardens with a sense of theatre and romanticism. They have been designing gardens and garden buildings together since 1983, including gardens at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, and were granted a Royal Warrant of Appointment to The King in 2024. They are currently designing a cottage orné with a style anglais garden on the shores of Lake Geneva and making an arcadian garden by the sea south of Naples, Italy. Mrs Bannerman is a regular contributor to the In The Garden column in Country Life and the Somerset duo discuss how to create a free-spirited, romantic English country garden in their Create Academy course, launched in February.
James Alexander-Sinclair
Based in Oxfordshire, James Alexander-Sinclair is a leading figure in the world of garden design, blending charisma with talent and deep knowledge. He is an RHS vice-president, RHS Gardens judge, television presenter, lecturer, writer (including for Country Life), podcaster and the head of his own practice, specialising in country gardens. His projects range from an eight-acre hospice garden in Norwich, Norfolk, and Horatio’s Garden in Scotland to domestic gardens from Surrey to the Cotswolds, such as at Grove Ley in Somerset.
07515 336356; www.jamesalexandersinclair.com
The James Alexander-Sinclair garden at Grove Ley, Somerset.
Jane Brown
Describing her approach as a blend of the traditional and modern, Jane Brown works carefully to create bespoke designs, many of which are country gardens in historical settings. Her recent work includes new gardens around a 16th-century farmhouse in Kent with extensive cottage-style planting and new terraces, as well as the renovation of a five-acre garden around an Arts-and-Crafts house in Surrey, with re-planting and new areas, such as ponds and wildflower meadows. Working across London and the South-East, Miss Brown is also designing a garden for a new, contemporary-style country house in her home county of East Sussex.
07894 427114; www.janebrown.co.uk
Jinny Blom Studio
Gifted landscape designer, plantswoman and author Jinny Blom is admired for her imaginative use of colour and artistic approach, as seen in the garden of Hampnett House in Gloucestershire. Specialising in creative garden design, landscape restoration and sustainable water use, her London studio is growing apace to respond to increasingly large estate projects.
020–3950 2899; www.jinnyblom.com
Jo Thompson Landscape & Garden Design
London-based designer, writer and speaker Jo Thompson is admired for atmospheric designs with artistic planting. Recent projects are a riverside rose garden in west London, a village garden in Kent bordering a Grade I-listed castle, a climate-resilient coastal space for a new-build home in Sussex and a 15th-century Kent farmhouse garden, with restored meadows, orchard planting and her signature roses anchoring the house within its historic setting.
Jo Thompson’s Gold-medal-winning design at RHS Chelsea in 2025. In 2026 she will design The Archers garden at RHS Badminton.
Following her 2025 Gold-medal success at Chelsea with the Glasshouse Garden, she has been invited by the RHS to design The Archers 75th Anniversary Garden at RHS Badminton in Gloucestershire this year, celebrating the programme’s long rural tradition.
www.jothompson-garden-design.co.uk
Kim Wilkie
Admired Hampshire-based landscape architect Kim Wilkie is known for designing new cities, forests and farmland, as well as earth sculptures, such as Orpheus, the inverted grass pyramid at Boughton, Northamptonshire. He recently won the competition to design a new Museum of Jesus’s Baptism and its wilderness setting at Bethany in Jordan with the architect Níall McLaughlin.
07768 874089; www.kimwilkie.com
The gently curving grass terraces that were conceived by Kim Wilkie for the garden at The Holt, a 17th-century house set in the South Downs National Park.
Lloyd Brunt Outdoor Design
Graham Lloyd-Brunt is well known for creating timeless gardens that appear to have always been there. Currently working at a 14th-century château in France and a Georgian estate with walled garden in Scotland, the London studio offers a complete service — with large glasshouses a present speciality.
The garden in the Kent North Downs at the home of designer Graham Lloyd-Brunt, whose projects currently include a 14th-century château in France and a Scottish estate with an 18th-century walled garden.
Lutyens & FitzGerald Landscape Design
Garden designer Catherine FitzGerald and landscape architect Mark Lutyens head a small Wiltshire practice, specialising in designing new gardens and restoring historic ones. The pair are known for their keen response to spirit of place, blurring the boundaries of what lies beyond and embracing a planting style that blends naturalism with more exuberant romanticism anchored within a bold structure. Miss Fitzgerald’s work at Glenarm Castle, Co Antrim, was showcased in Country Life last year. Recent work includes new gardens at Ballyfin Demesne, Co Laois, and an ecologically designed retreat on the west coast of Scotland that merges with the landscape.
07785 330302; lutyensfitzgerald.com
Marian Boswall Landscape Architects
Known for expertly crafted gardens and abundant planting in natural ecosystems, Kent-based Marian Boswall’s recent book, The Kindest Garden (Frances Lincoln), relates her approach to regenerative gardening and was the Garden Media Guild Gardening Book of the Year 2025. Current projects include regenerative estates in Yorkshire and Sussex, historic gardens in the Cotswolds and a modern house on Chichester Harbour, West Sussex.
020–7305 7153; www.marianboswall.com
Mazzullo + Russell Landscape Design
Emma Mazzullo and Libby Russell head a London studio that undertakes a wide range of projects, including large estates, across the UK, Channel Islands and abroad. They are known for their long experience and attention to detail together with romantic and thoughtful planting. Recent projects include a naturalistic garden around an estuary near Dartmouth, Devon, an Arts-and-Crafts house on the Surrey Hills linking the main house to a new pool complex and gardens in Sweden, Jersey and London, including a large, rural-feeling garden that looks on to Hampstead Heath. Libby Russell also gardens at Batcombe House, Somerset, which has recently featured in several books, including Wonderlands by Clare Coulson (Hardie Grant).
020–7931 9996; www.mazzullorussell.com
Miria Harris Design
London-based landscape designer Miria Harris has a background in contemporary art and curation and uses her expert eye to create dynamic, artistic gardens that feature a painterly sense of colour, made with low environmental-impact choices and materials that blend well into the overall scheme. Current projects include a modern crafted garden for a Suffolk cottage and a garden for a house overlooking a fjord in Oslo, Norway, as well as designs in Cornwall and Jersey.
07887 993197; www.miriaharris.com
Pip Morrison Landscape Designs
Widely admired for his sensitive, thoughtful approach to design and expertise in the development of historic gardens, Pip Morrison has recently completed the restoration of the Auckland Castle gardens, Co Durham, which is now open to the public. Other recent projects for the Hampshire studio include the restoration of the gardens and park of Schloss Lerbach, a country house near Cologne, Germany, which is to become a luxury hotel, and the restoration of the park at a country house by Samuel Wyatt in Surrey.
07817 736360; pip@pipmorrison.co.uk
Robert Myers Associates
Specialising in contemporary landscapes in historic settings, this practice is known for timeless, yet quietly modern gardens, balancing structure with naturalistic planting. Led by seven-time RHS Chelsea Gold-medal winner Robert Myers, the Worcestershire practice operates across major rural estates and significant private gardens to city squares, Oxbridge colleges and cathedral precincts. Recent work includes St John’s College, Cambridge, Cowley Manor hotel in the Cotswolds and Cambridge House on Piccadilly, London W1, for Auberge Resorts Collection.
01885 227377; www.robertmyers-associates.co.uk
Rupert Golby
Known for his deep knowledge and invaluable advice, Rupert Golby is admired for creating classic English gardens. Often, he stays with his projects, developing them as they evolve over the decades. From Oxfordshire, he continues to work at Nevill Holt, Leicestershire, site of an annual opera festival, where he is extending the parkland by introducing more English oaks and restoring the 19th-century wrought-iron railings around the adjacent church. He continues at Ferne Park in Dorset, adding more magnolias to the lakeside. Mr Golby is reinterpreting the courtyard garden next to the Arts-and-Crafts house Rodmarton Manor in Gloucestershire, in collaboration with the owners. He enjoys the challenge of small spaces and is at work on a front garden in Oxford, too.
07785 228384
Tania Compton
Renowned for gardens with naturalistic and interesting planting, with lawns merging into meadows and substantial herbaceous borders, Country Life contributor Tania Compton’s artistic eye makes her highly sought after in the UK and abroad from her Wiltshire base. Her work demonstrates an expertise in creating a fine balance between art and Nature, with a subtle element of surprise. Her striking photographs of plants can be enjoyed on her Instagram page, @taniacompton.
Todd Longstaffe-Gowan
Renowned for creating historically informed, inventive and exciting horticultural designs, London-based Todd Longstaffe-Gowan is gardens adviser to Historic Royal Palaces, president of the London Parks and Gardens Trust and a lecturer, as well as an author. He brings to his garden design a sense of the complexities of our relation to the past, informed by his training and experience as an architect, landscape architect, cultural geographer and historian.
Current work includes collaborating with architect Ben Pentreath on the creation of a new, extensive country estate in Bedfordshire, forming new gardens at Ashridge House in Hertfordshire and reviving the historic gardens at Serre de la Madone in Menton, France.
020–3327 3780; www.tlg-landscape.co.uk
Tom Stuart-Smith Studio
Established in 1998, this Hertfordshire studio of 27 is headed by five directors, including Tom Stuart-Smith and Kurosh Davis. All design work is overseen by Mr Stuart-Smith, who is renowned for blending naturalism with modern design and whose talents were first showcased at RHS Chelsea in 1998 with a garden for Chanel. He has since earned nine Gold medals, including three Best in Show, combining deep know-ledge of plants with an extraordinary eye for design on a big scale.
Current projects include the opening of the new Clore Garden outside Tate Britain, London SW1, which will be celebrated in an RHS Chelsea show garden in May. A new compact edition of the book Tom Stuart-Smith: Drawn from the Land (Thames & Hudson), written by Tim Richardson, will be published in May.
020–7253 2100; www.tomstuartsmith.co.uk
Xa Tollemache
With traditional gardens her speciality, Xa Tollemache is an expert at transforming neglected landscapes, from small gardens in town to large estates. Taking inspiration from the architecture of the house or surrounding landscape, her designs always have focal points such as plants and statues, with paths meandering through clumps of lavender and roses, as well as informal planting of perennials, redolent of the garden she created for her husband’s ancestral home, Helmingham Hall in Suffolk. Currently working on designs for gardens in Northumberland, Wiltshire, Shropshire, Suffolk and London, she also offers the Helmingham collection of bespoke garden furniture.
01473 890799; www.xa-tollemache.co.uk