Wildflowers, perfect ponds and a luxuriant, sheltered garden tucked away in Scotland: Country Life’s top gardening stories of 2017
Between Christmas and New Year, we're taking a look back at some of our most popular stories of the year – today, we look at the gardens that have delighted and inspired.

Wildflowers of Britain: A simple guide
From deciduous woods yet to fill out with leaf, to windswept hilltop shingle beach and riverbank, our flora can give so much pleasure.
Three gardening myths debunked
Gardening myths get passed down from one generation to the next, says Charles Quest-Ritson, so never be afraid to try things out for yourself.
10 gardening Instagram accounts to delight and inspire you
Pretty gardening accounts that will inspire green fingers everywhere.
Wormistoune: A luxuriant, sheltered garden tucked away in Scotland
For sheer romance and, given its coastal location, a surprising amount of shelter, it would be hard to beat this luxuriantly planted and colourful Scottish garden.
Wychwood Manor: A 1920s house and gardens, restored and transformed
On a south-facing ridge in the Evenlode valley, the Arts-and-Crafts-style garden of a 1920s house has been given a facelift in recent years, enhancing the building’s relationship to its landscape.
Felley Priory: The ultimate lesson in the value of planting hedges
The garden at Felley Priory, Underwood, Nottinghamshire, enjoyed considerable fame a generation ago for its cohesive planting and plantsmanship, but Non Morris finds its greatness continues with the present owners.
How to keep a perfect pond
Alan Titchmarsh reveals when to clear out the weeds and keep your pond in top condition – and you can even get the grandchildren to help out.
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
The day that Woolworths accidentally sold me an endangered species
Charles Quest-Ritson reminisces about the day his bargain purchase of a cyclamen in Woolworths proved to be something rather special.
17 country garden gates which demonstrate a perfect combination of form and function
A glorious garden deserves a glorious garden gate.
Birkhall, Balmoral estate, Aberdeenshire
In 1852, the freehold was secured and the smaller residence of Birkhall was gifted to Edward, Prince of Wales. We pay the garden a visit.
Agnes has worked for Country Life in various guises — across print, digital and specialist editorial projects — before finally finding her spiritual home on the Features Desk. A graduate of Central St. Martins College of Art & Design she has worked on luxury titles including GQ and Wallpaper* and has written for Condé Nast Contract Publishing, Horse & Hound, Esquire and The Independent on Sunday. She is currently writing a book about dogs, due to be published by Rizzoli New York in September 2025.
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Sophia Money-Coutts: My family WhatsApp is already banging on about Christmas arrangements. Can I leave the group?
Where are we spending Christmas? Who gets the best bedroom, and whose turn is it to cook?
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A handy five minute guide to Frieze — and the things you really don’t want to miss
The London art fair returns this week.
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The one website about trees and shrubs that everyone needs to know about
'Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles' has been digitised, making one of gardening's most important works free and at your fingertips.
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'Nature's loo roll': Verbascum, one of the most curious — and useful — plants you'll find in an English country garden
With its ability to rouge cheeks, settle stomachs and operate as Nature’s loo roll, verbascum is as surprisingly useful as it is pretty, discovers Ian Morton.
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'There is only a handful of fruit trees I’d grow for their non-edible charms — quince is one'
A versatile fruit that's superb in jams and with booze, quince also doesn't make you work too hard for all that pleasure.
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Everything you could ever want to know about growing, eating and cooking plums
Mirabelles, gages, plums, damsons — the best ones to buy, the ones to avoid, and how to use them. Charles Quest-Ritson has you covered.
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Sophie Conran's garden at Salthrop Manor, and its journey from bare field to Cotswold paradise
The walled garden at Salthrop Manor — home of Sophie Conran — hums with life and colour. It’s hard to believe that this was merely a field not so long ago, as Tiffany Daneff explains; photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo for Country Life.
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Alan Titchmarsh: You wouldn't think it, but Surrey is the most wooded of all England's counties — and its Scots pines are as beautiful as any of its trees
Alan Titchmarsh is selling his house
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'Knowledge, energy, creativity and enthusiasm... He's a sensation': Meet the golden boy of English horticulture
Charles Quest-Ritson meets the best of the next generation of gardeners tending to some of the nation's best gardens.
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What Britain's top garden designers are planting now to create dazzling spring meadows around their homes
Non Morris reveals the techniques behind the contemporary take on William Robinson’s original idea of naturalising bulbs in long grass, creating an effect even more dazzling than a meadow.