Tresco Abbey Gardens and Other Beautiful English Gardens (2024)

In her nearly 1,000 articles written for London-based magazine Country Life and William Robinson’s The Garden, celebrated British horticulturist Gertrude Jekyll often detailed the

joy gardens can bring to one’s life. With sweeping scenes of gardens overflowing with lush flowers and plants, it’s clear that most of England joined in her sentiment and appreciation for the natural world.

Across the country, historic castles, mansions, and farmhouses stand in the background of rainbow flower borders, manicured topiary displays, and fragrant herb gardens. Their centuries-old lessons and mastery have cultivated some of the utmost captivating outdoors spaces in the world.

Now sit back and get ready to be transported to 11 of the most beautiful gardens in all of England.

Upon first glance, the Biddulph Grange Garden may appear to be just another Victorian garden, but past the manicured shrubbery, there’s a whole world of wild foliage from across the planet waiting to be discovered. Accomplished horticulturist James Bateman spent more than 20 years collecting plants from Egypt, China, and countless other countries to create his own international landscape at the Staffordshire property. Even after his death and a change in ownership, the garden still acts as a passageway for guests to explore the native plantings of the world, just as Bateman had envisioned it.

At the heart of the Isles of Scilly, the Tresco Abbey Garden displays more than 20,000 different plants from sub-tropical climates across the world. Augustus Smith founded the botanical paradise in 1834 around the ruins of the island’s Benedictine Abbey. Remains of the former medieval monastery have become a central part of the garden with flowering vines winding around the storied arches and walls. Throughout the garden, the plants are laid out geographically, with the hotter, top terraces housing South African and Australian species, and the lower section sheltering vegetation from New Zealand and South America.

Deep within the North Yorkshire Valley, the winding Skell River leads to an open, verdant clearing with majestic monastic ruins and statues rising from tranquil mood ponds. During the 18th century, British politician John Aislabie and his son, William, crafted the channels and reservoirs of the Studley Royal Water Garden, which remain as one of the best surviving examples of a Georgian water garden.

When late English gardener and garden writer Christopher Lloyd proclaimed, “gardening, like living, should be fun,” he had to have been envisioning the wild flower meadows and topiary gardens outside his window at Great Dixter House. His father, Nathaniel Lloyd, purchased the Tudor-style home in 1909 and laid out the plans for the spectacular verdant haven Christopher would cultivate years later. Designed in the Arts and Crafts style, the structure garden experiments with bold forms, riotous color, and combinations that Lloyd has been quoted to as high maintenance yet visually rewarding.

Bess of Hardwick, one of the most formidable women in Elizabethan English society, was never one to follow the status quo. The noble found comfort in exploring new ideas and styles, especially when it came to designing Hardwick Hall and its expansive gardens. And while the garden has largely changed since Bess’s design, each courtyard still houses quirky features such as fruitful orchards, formal hedges, and eccentric statues. The fragrant herb and vegetable garden supplies the campus's restaurant with fresh ingredients all year long.

Tucked away amongst the rolling hills of the Cotswolds lies a collection of themed garden rooms filled with rare plants and trees known as the Hidcote. In 1907, American horticulturalist Lawrence Johnston’s mother bought a 300-acre plot of land in the English countryside that would later become one of Johnston’s greatest works. Johnston spent nearly 40 years developing and cultivating a maze of kitchen gardens, fountains, and ponds at Hidcote Manor. His travels from across Africa to Asia inspired many of the corridors and plantings and add to the distinct nature of each space.

Known to house one of the world’s oldest topiary, the gardens at Levens Hall were laid out by Guillaume Beaumont, the gardener to King James II, in 1694. Beaumont’s original design has remained largely unchanged with a bountiful collection of sculpted box and yew trees, wildflower meadows, storied orchards, and more than 30,000 bedding plants still decorating the grounds.

It’s hard to believe that one of the most-celebrated botanical gardens in all of England was once abandoned for nearly 75 years. However, that’s exactly how the story of the Lost Gardens of Heligan goes. Since the late 1500s, the gardens and neighboring estate belonged to the wealthy Tremayne family, who aspired to have their own thriving green space. For centuries, the garden flourished with a dedicated staff until many of those gardeners were required to fight in World War I, leading to its despair. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the overgrown garden was rediscovered and transformed into the extravagant display of Italian and jungle garden it's known for today.

Vita Sackville-West’s ability to create beautiful scenes of romance extends beyond her poems and into the emerald mazes at her home, Sissinghurst Castle. The poet and her husband, Harold Nicholson, fell in love with the castle and farm at first glance in 1930 and quickly began making plans to restore the property to its full glory. Together, they laid the foundation for one of England’s most famous gardens with its manicured rose section and the famous White Garden, which houses some of the couple’s favorite plants like white gladioli, white irises, white pompom dahlias, and white Japanese anemones.

Stretching more than 1,600 acres in England’s pastoral Lake District, the towering Sizergh Castle provides a marvelous background to formal Dutch gardens, an expansive limestone rock garden, and scenic water pools. There’s also a 1.5-mile long wildlife trail that allows families to learn about native conifer and fern plants and the numerous animals roaming around the grounds.

A once-abandoned farmhouse, this family-owned nursery in York offers a relaxing escape with its wildflower meadows, herbaceous borders, and tranquil ponds filled with water lilies. Managed for more than 40 years by owners Vanessa and John Cook, the small garden encourages wildlife while highlighting the beauty of the cottage and neighboring 18th-century farmhouses.