Great Comp, Kent
As featured on the Country Life website last week, this gem of a garden just outside the M25 is beautiful all year round, but all the more so in spring.
Leonardslee, West Sussex
The Loderi Garden — like Great Comp, also featured recently in Country Life — has the world’s most complete collection of Loderi hybrid rhododendrons, bred by Leonardslee’s former owner, Sir Edmund Loder, from 1901. Some plants in the collection are more than 100 years old.
Ramster Gardens, Surrey
Rhododendrons were a passion of the Hon Florence Priscilla McLaren, known as Lady Norman, who lived at Ramster from 1922. Many of the large rhododendrons were planted in the 1920s and 1930s, some with russet trunks now stretching to 20ft in height.
Sheringham Park, Norfolk
The gardens of Sheringham Hall, Norfolk.
The 50-acre Wild Garden at Sheringham is home to a nationally important collection of rhododendrons. The ‘carpet of colour’ can be admired from two viewing platforms, but gargantuan lemon-coloured rhododendron macabeanum, tucked away from the path network, are well worth a diversion.
Trewithen Gardens, Cornwall
A traditional Cornish woodland garden with a strong bias toward spring flowering plants, many of plant hunter origin. Rhododendrons, interspersed with Asiatic magnolias, flank the huge serpentine lawn and signal the arrival of spring, best between February and July.
Scotney Castle, Kent
When spring arrives, the Main Lawns and Lime Walk are swamped by their mauve-pink blooms. A sea of rhododendrons flood the sloping valley, cascading from Dell Garden down to the moat, where ruins of the 14th-century castle emerge from below.
Glendoick Gardens, Scotland
The rhododendron nursery was established in 1953, filled with seeds of wild species collected on plant-hunting expeditions. Today, it is the site of a project to create hybrid species that will withstand rising temperatures.
Exbury Gardens, Hampshire
This rhododendron haven was begun by Lionel de Rothschild in 1919. Three generations, thousands of bulbs, and more than 1,000 hybrids later, the collection is world-famous, at its best in May.
Borde Hill, Haywards Heath
With a legacy that includes the first Chinese rhododendrons to be introduced to Britain, flowers from seeds collected by 19th-century plant hunters, and the place where Col. Stephenson Robert Clarke began his rhododendron collection in earnest, The Old Rhododendron Garden promises a bounty of history and blooms.
Bowood Garden, Wiltshire
The Woodland Garden, laid out by the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne in 1854 and open for six weeks during the flowering season (mid-April to early June), is home to hundreds of rare and hybrid rhododendron species, with two miles of meandering paths to enjoy them.
RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon
Good throughout the season, but head for the National Rhododendron Show (April 26-27) and you'll see exhibitors from all of the south and west of England gather for a special event, showcasing magnificent displays and a programme of classes, trade and advice stands, and competitions. Entry included in garden admission, from £14.50.
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'The whole house shook. Everything was white. For four months, it felt as if we were on Mars': The story behind one of Hampshire's most breathtaking gardensWhen Kim Wilkie sculpted a tiered grass amphitheatre behind this 17th-century house, the garden finally settled into place, as Non Morris discovers.
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'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed': Inside Jane Austen's Winchester home, the house where she penned her final words and drew her final breathJane Austen spent the last days of her life in rented lodgings in Winchester, Hampshire. Adam Rattray describes the remarkable recent discoveries made about the house in which she died.
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'The whole house shook. Everything was white. For four months, it felt as if we were on Mars': The story behind one of Hampshire's most breathtaking gardens
When Kim Wilkie sculpted a tiered grass amphitheatre behind this 17th-century house, the garden finally settled into place, as Non Morris discovers.
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Myddleton House: The place that 'will help you learn what true gardening is' is open to everyone, and just 30 minutes from central LondonE. A. Bowles created a horticultural playground in the gardens of Myddleton House that was years ahead of its time, and continues to influence even today. Isabel Bannerman takes a look.
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Wakehurst: 500 years of history, 2.4 billion seeds, 500 acres of planting, and scientists who might just save us allCharles Quest-Ritson takes a look at the amazing work that's been done to update Wakehurst, Kew's trailblazing outpost in Sussex.
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A dozen slices of al fresco inspiration from the best designers in BritainAmelia Thorpe shares her pick of the most beautiful outdoor furniture and accessories to help you make the most of summer.
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'Victorian magnificence skilfully simplified and distilled': A peek at the restoration of Somerleyton Hall gardensRecent works have retained the former theatrical splendours of these gardens near Lowestoft, Suffolk, finds Tilly Ware.
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Alan Titchmarsh: I've tried every slug control known to man, and these are the only things that have ever worked for meAlan Titchmarsh is as charming, warming and friendly a man as anyone you'll ever meet. Unless, of course, you're a slug... in which case you'll awaken his ruthless side.
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One of the most spectacular rose gardens in England has come in to bloom two weeks earlyIt's time to head to Mottisfont — come for the roses, stay for the fascinating exhibition shedding new light on the history of this beautiful Hampshire house.
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The first new botanical gardens to be created in the UK in almost 200 years is celebrating its 25th birthdayThe National Botanic Garden of Wales helped put Carmarthenshire on the map and its Great Glasshouse, designed by modernist architect Sir Norman Foster, was once the largest single-span glasshouse in the world.
