All photos by the author unless otherwise noted. Click on the photos to enlarge them or view them in a series. There are just too many photos to caption one by one but I think most readers recognize a tulip or a daffodil.

As I noted in my earlier post, THREE DAYS IN LONDON, (https://jimhornnews.com/2023/05/29/three-days-in-london-may-2023) I was scheduled to visit gardens in England including the Chelsea Flower Show on two previous occasions. The first time the gardens and show were included in a cruise, but I suffered an eye hemmorhage and had to abandon ship 15 minutes before it sailed. In 2021, I booked a different tour and it was canceled due to the pandemic. Would the third time bring me better fortune? A RESOUNDNG YES.

In April, the web showed offerings by some US agencies with large groups of 40 clients, too many for my taste. The small US groups were all sold out. So I googled “Garden Tours of England” and found UK SISLEY GARDEN TOURS. I was so fortunate that there was space for another person on their 22- pax group for May 20. I emailed Sisley, got a rapid confirmation and, by the next day, I had booked and charged my payment. Soon after my email contained more details of what promised to be just the tour I had been looking for. Of several tours, I chose the dates that included the famous Chelsea Flower Show. You can find their tours for 2024 at WWW.SISLEY.CO.UK. More on the company at the end of this post.

I could meet the tour group on May 20 at an airport hotel, or at 11 am at the Kew gardens. Since I had already been in the city for three days, it was easier for me to get a cab to Kew and I got there from Kensington in about 25 minutes. Tour leader Fran met me with a cheerful greeting and phoned the group guide, Tina, who connected me to the group that had arrived earlier and was nearby with an expert Kew guide.

THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, KEW

The Kew guide was very knowledgeable, as expected. She seemed mostly interested in the large variety of ancient trees, many dating from the 1700s. Due to a cold spring, the flower beds were a bit behind but I saw many of the same species that were blooming when I left Rochester NY: lilacs, azaleas, rhododendron, irises, and peonies. The allium and wisteria pictured below were prolific this season.

It’s hard to go into a conservatory with a group of 22 people, so we spent only a little time in the Palm House, constructed in the 1840s. I have several of the tropical plants in my garden in Mexico, but I saw some exotic flowers I had never seen before.

I could not begin to do all 300 acres in the free time allotted for personal choices. See the Kew website for more information: https://www.kew.org. After showing the highlights, the guide left us on our own for two hours of wandering and lunch on our own. I liked best the Princess of Wales Conservatory. It has ten sections with different climate zones, like temperate, tropical, and desert, and a small orchid room.

Thousands of people strolled through the park and long lines quewed for refreshments. Due to a long line, I skipped the palace where King George III and Queen Charlotte lived, featured in the Netflix series Bridgerton. After four hours, I think everyone was ready to board the coach for the short ride to our first hotel.

We enjoyed a gala welcome dinner in the dining room of the Richmond Harbour Hotel & Spa, in the Richmond borough of London, where we spent a delightfu three days. The historic mansion was once on the Thames but the river moved. Atlthough single, I had a spacious and comfortable double room.

Sunday May 21. A private cruise on the Thames to Hampton Court with a tour of the palace and free time to explore the gardens.

It was a short ride on the coach to the Thames where we boarded a boat for a Sunday morning cruise to Hampton Court. Being Sunday, there were hundreds of people walking their dogs or jogging along the river bank, and hundreds more enjoying water sports like kayaking, paddle-boating, and sailing. I was surprised to discover how residential the riverside has become, with pricey mansions along side older modest cottages.

In less than an hour, one could spot Hamtpon Court on the shore. Lord Chancellor, later Cardinal Thomas Wolsey resided in the medieval manor here for 15 years until he fell into disfavor with King Henry VIII who forced Wolsey to give it up. Both Wolsey and Henry enlarged and embellished it into a Tudor palace. All six wives of Henry VIII eventually lived (or died) here. In grade school I had learned the rhyme: ” Henry the Eighth to six wives he was wedded; one died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded.” No time for the gory details here. It was a residence for royals plus 30 suites for the most prestigious guests, until Queen Victoria opened it to the public in 1838. The great hall still exhibits some of the hundreds of Belgian tapestries Henry collected. The ancient kitchen and kitchen garden are open to the public.

Today, Hampton Court is graced by 750 acres of parkland and 60 acres of formal gardens. It struck me as much larger than Louis XIV’s gardens at Versailles. The tennis court is indoors and the royal club boasts 500 members who can play a variation of the game to this day. The rose garden was just beginning to bloom but numerous other blooms graced the walled garden. The cafe offered reasonable food for our independent lunch.

After four delightful but tiring hours, we returned by coach to Richmond where we enjoyed a delicious dinner included at the hotel.

Monday May 22: RHS WISLEY

A friend who lived for years in England told me she had never heard of Wisley, yet it’s the second most visited garden in England after Kew. It is one of five gardens managed by the Royal Horticulture Society. Founded privately in 1878, it was given in trust to the RHS in 1902. Its numerous gardens are spread across 240 acres and the Glass House holds plants from tropical to temperate zones. The experimental garden holds trial plants to create new cultivars. We broke into small groups each with a guide. Linda, a volunteer guide, started here in 1990 so she knows a bit about flowers and trees. She is in the blue jacket standing near the pink Toona tree. The sensational wisteria abounds in the garden. I had never seen the tropical jade vine pinctured next to the rabbit sculpture and glass house. Lunch was included in the cafe and dinner was independent at the hotel or in Richmond village.

Tuesday May 23: THE RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW

The Royal Horticulture Society has been presenting a spring flower show since the 1830s. It moved from place to place until 1913 when the annual five-day show moved to the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in central London. Shows were canceled only during WWII and the Covid Pandemic. The royals always visit the show, and Queen Elizabeth seldom missed one. According to the RHS show program booklet, this year 79 of the best nurseries and growers presented displays, and individuals or groups created 36 show gardens that are later uprooted and donated to charitable orgaizations. Eight thousand workers scrambled to create it all in just 25 days. The indoor pavilion alone covers three acres. About one hundred merchants booked space to sell garden-related merchandise as well as upscale clothing, furniture, jewelry, and products of interior design. If you are not a shopper, or have no room in your luggage to carry purchases home, the shops can be a distraction. The biggest problem universally acknowledged is crowding. As many as 40 thousand people have attended on some days in past years. The mobs crowding the sidewalks and smothering the cafes take some of the frosting off the cake, depending on one’s patience. But who can fail to be thrilled by the marvelous displays pictured below? Note the unusual container garden, like floral sculptures.

The last flower on the right is the RHS Chelsea Flower of the Year, 2023. An unusual Agapanthus called Black Jack by its grower. I never found it in the midst of so many thousands of other blooms.

From Chelsea, the coach took us on winding lanes through Kent to the Chilston Park Hotel, on a rural road where sheep and lambs posed a picture reminiscent of Ireland. Wikipedia offers a brief history of the ancient country house that sits on 190 acres of parkland with a small lake and several ponds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilston_Park.

The hotel has been receiving prestigious guests for several centuries, and it’s a popular venue for wedding and birthday parties, afternoon high tea, and Sunday dinners. We enjoyed superb breakfasts and dinners there.

Wednesday May 24. GREAT DIXTER GARDENS

The first historical mention of the Dixter manor house near the village of Rye in Kent was in 1220. Additions were made in the 1460s, and the house was restored in 1910. Today the house with its six acre garden is owned by a charitable trust. In addition to pleasing travelers, it is an experimental garden that offers scholarships to students who spend a year learning the artistry of making small gardens whose flora flow from one season to the next. Andrew, originally from Martha’s Vineyard MA, did an admirable job explaining the theory to us on his first presentation to a group. Our tour booklet explained how “…one season’s planting is designed to flow seamlessly into the next. The aim is to have new growth coming up to hide the old as it dies down.”

After Dixter, we had lunch and a short time to walk around the ancient village of Rye, a convenient location between Dixter and our afternoon visit to another private garden, Godinton House.

GODINTON HOUSE

After lunch on May 24, we saw another private garden in Kent. Godinton House was a private family home fom 1440 to 1895. The garden embellishment began in 1902 and in 1991 it was taken over by the Godinton Charitable Trust. Much more formal than Dixter, the 12 acres of flower beds are bordered by yew hedges. A sensational wisteria marks the entrance to the Italian garden.

Thursday May 25. LEEDS CASTLE

Originally built as a Saxon Manor in 857, Leeds became a Norman family home after the victory of William the Conqueror. In the 13th century it became a royal palace for King Edward I. In the 1500s, it was the residence of the first wife of Henry VIII, Catherine of Arangon, and eventually the residence of six of the medieval Queens of England. You can find a wealth of information on the castle on its web site and at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_Castle . Later it passed through he hands of various families until 1926 when a wealthy heiress, Ladie Baillie, bought it in a bankruptcy sale and began its restoration and embellishment. It remained in her hands until her death in 1975 when it was turned over to the Leeds Castle Foundation. Today it is one of the most visited sites in England with over a half million visitors a year, and it has been a frequent filming location. Built on islands in a lake, its 500 acres of parkland include several beautiful gardens.

May 25 afternoon. PASHLEY MANOR

After lunch on our own at Leeds Castle, we moved on to Pashley Manor in the East Sussex countryside. It began as a hunting lodge in the 1400s, later owned by the Lord Mayor of London in 1457. A later owner built a “new” Tudor residence nearby in 1550, which still stands today. A “modern” terrace was added to the back in 1720, its striking feature the enormous wisteria that covers the facade. Its eleven acres include artistically placed sculptures and several gardens devoted to particular species. We missed the 48 thousand tulips in April, and we were too early for the more than 100 varieties of roses in June or the August dahlia fest. But we had the perfect date for wisteria and rhododendron.

Our guide Tina recommended the cafe for tea and pastries after our walk through the gardens. She was right about the great selection of pastries that I should have avoided but, like Oscar Wilde, “I can resist anything but temptation.” After the visit to Pashley Manor, I had to wonder about another stop in the program, Chapel Down Vineyard. Totally unfamiliar with English wines, I thought it might be an oxymoron, but I was surprised to learn that they have become increasingly popular, more so now that Brexit has made imports from France and Germany so much more expensive. Tom talked us through 3 wines, a Bacchus white, quite fruity and tasty, another white with a bit less body, and a prize-winning chardonnay champagne. After the tasting we proceeded to a delicious dinner with wine in the restaurant. We didn’t reboard the coach until 8 pm and reached the hotel at 8:40, making for a very long day with very little time for me to compulsively record my notes and put the photos on my laptop.

FRIDAY MAY 26: LONG BARN AND CHARTWELL HOUSE

Long Barn’s origins in the 1300s are obscure, and it went through the hands of numerous families you can be grateful I won’t list. Restorations began in 1913, and in 1915 it was purchased by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. She was a celebrated writer and poet, perhaps best known for journal articles whe wrote on gardens and gardening. Nicolson was a politician, member of parliament, diplomat, and biographer. They were apart often, and each had multiple same-sex lovers which, allegedly, deepened their affection for each other. They moved to Sissinghurst in 1930 and the house has had other private owners to this day. I was particularly interested in the place since I had read Nicolson’s biography of Dwight Morrow, the Wall Street financier who advised Charles Lindbergh. He was US ambassador to Mexico following the ambassdor who was the subject of my doctoral dissertation, so I had researched his papers at Amherst College. Morrow invited Charles Lindbergh to fly to Mexico where he received one of his most rousing receptions. He was a guest at the Morrow home in Cuernavaca where he met Morrow’s two daughters, eventually marrying writer Ann Morrow Lindbergh, . How the Lindbergh’s discovered Long Barn I have no idea, but they rented the home during the three years 1936 to 1938 to escape the pressures of prying journalists after the kidnapping and murder of their first-born son. Other guests included Charles Fairbanks, E.M. Forster, Charlie Chaplin, and Virgina Woolf (one of Vita’s lovers). Current owner Rebecca Lemonius greeted our group with tea and pastry before explaining some of the history of the home and describing the charming gardens, pictured below.

CHARTWELL HOUSE, the afternoon of May 25.

We departed Long Barn at noon and arrived at Chartwell House within an hour. I had seen representations of the house in many movies and was anxious to see the home where Winston Churchill wrote, painted, gardened, did bricklaying, and directed a world war. He lived in the modified Elizabethan manor for 40 years. He bought it in 1922, modernized it and added other buildings like a cottage for his daughter and a studio for his art. He was not a good financial planner, and when he came upon hard times, a consortium of his friends maneuvered to turn the house over to the National Trust with the proviso that Churchill and his family have permanent tenancy until their deaths. He died in 1965, and the National Trust opened the 80 acre estate to the public in 1966, adding the tourist infrastructure well-below the house and gardens. First we had lunch on our own in a crowded cafeteria with few hot selections and a variety of sandwiches and snacks. Then we walked up the hill to the main house passing the swimming pool, the duck pond, and many ornamental trees and bushes. We had tickets to enter the house itself at 2 pm. Sir Winton’s art studio displays many of his paintings, some quite excellent to my eye, and several that appeared he had just barely covered the numbers. The historial documents on display, and the uniforms, medals and other memorabilia are fascinating.

We enjoyed our final group dinner in the Chilston Park Hotel and had to pack for our departures the next day, but not before a visit to one final internationally famous garden home.

Saturday May 27. SISSINGHURST CASTLE

We departed the hotel early for the 40-minute drive to Sissinghurst for a private pre-opening tour of the estate that Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson made their home when they left Long Barn in 1930. Vita died in 1962 and bequeathed the 450 acre estate to the National Trust. Nicolson died in 1968. We entered the grounds 90 minutes before the 11 am opening to the public, breaking into three small groups with excellent guides. Thanks Fran for getting us into the garden before the masses arrived. We were the first people to enter the tower when it opened at 11 am. The views of the gardens from the tower are spectacular, and one can see how the grounds are divided into separate “rooms” with different themes. The stand alone cottage is available to rent through the National Trust.

Due to a dining room glitch, the final group lunch was served at the Sissinghurst restaurant later than expected, so we got a late start to deliver some of our group to Heathrow, and some to an airport hotel. I had expected to be at the airport at 4 pm, but it was nearly 5:30 when I checked in at the Virgin Atlantic desk for my 8:15 pm flight to NY JFK. Alas, the flight had been postponed until 11 pm which would get me to my hotel near Kennedy at 3 am when I had to get up at 5 am for an early flight to Rochester. One earlier flight was already boarding and the next flight was sold out. An airline customer service employee took pity on me and jumped through hoops for half an hour, finally returning with a huge grin that told me she found a seat for me on the 7:50 departure. What a relief. It was still a hassle to clear passport control and security and find my way to the distant departure gate where I arrived ten minutes before boarding. I didn’t really relax until I was secure in my seat with my old friend Johnny Walker.

I can’t finish without a tribute to the Sisley organization, founded in 1992. Fran Pride, the daughter-in-law of the founder and her close friend Colette Walker took over the firm in 2011. They are both registered guides and garden enthusiasts. There is always an excellent guide on the coach and garden experts at each site. For this tour, guide Tina Gwynne-Evans (pictured left) accompanied Fran (right) on the coach and provided historic and botanical details along the route. Fran’s superb choice of destinations and meticulous organization combined with Tina’s wealth of knowledge provided a truly memorable travel experience.

I must add thanks to the amicable and enthusiastic group of fellow travelers. always cheeerful, patient and punctual. I compose my blog posts as a memory album for me, my family and friends, and for my fellow travelers and blog followers. I was inspired by this trip to close with some verse by William Wordsworth, inspired by sighting a host of Daffodils.

I gazed’and gazed’but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

So here’s to Fran, and Tina, and the delightful people who shared this colorful adventure. May these memories fill your hearts with pleasure, and may you keep on dancing forever and ever.

Sincerely, Jim Horn

SOURCES: The text above was composed with information from the Sisley tour booklet, the Chelsea program booklet, brochures from each garden, Wikipedia.com articles, and the web sites of the gardens featured.

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