Britain’s gardens are made for summer visiting. This is the season when herbaceous borders are at their richest, roses are in full flourish, kitchen gardens are heavy with promise and planting inspiration abounds.
Here, we’ve chosen some of the loveliest to visit, from well-known showpieces to places with more understated charm, including one by everyone’s favourite gardener Monty Don. Get, set, grow...
Recommended by Monty Don
Rousham Gardens, Oxfordshire
Rousham is a sublime work of art and yet, despite being widely acknowledged as one of the truly great gardens of the world, it remains surprisingly unknown. Designed by William Kent in the 18th century, the Rousham that we see now has been largely held in amber since then. It appears, superficially at least, as though it has been untouched by time.
The garden is where ladies with pannier skirts once sat and where men in tricorne hats and brocaded waistcoats trod. There are said to be a thousand circuits that you can take round the garden. Walk down a narrow path, slipping in between the trees, and you descend into a green world. Green light spatters through the trees onto ivy, herb Robert, holly and tightly cropped laurel.
Each of these paths and rides through the trees culminates in a statue or building. So as you drift round, you do so from building to building, designed to replicate the experience of the Grand Tour that young British aristocrats were making at the time.
As well as William Kent's masterpiece, there are three walled gardens. The smallest is centred around a beautiful dovecote, its complicated box parterre filled with roses and foxgloves, a frothy dessert after the rich feast of Kent's garden.
Open every day
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Best restoration
Parnham Park, Dorset
Just ten minutes from the Jurassic Coast, the gardens at Parnham are being thoughtfully brought back to life as part of a dramatic restoration of both house and grounds. The house was devastated by a fire several years ago, lending the estate a romantic, distinctly Jane Eyre feel as it slowly returns to glory.
Head gardener Nigel has been working tirelessly to revive the planting, from abundant roses and wisteria to swathes of dahlias in high summer. At its heart, a greenhouse, once lost beneath deep brambles, now houses a Michelin Guide-recommended restaurant supplied by the restored walled garden.
Open for guided tours; walled garden open Wednesday to Sunday for restaurant visitors
Best though-provoking
Waltham Place, Berkshire
Another of Monty Don's favourites, this is arguably one of Britain's most inspiring gardens. Restored by Nicky and Strilli Oppenheimer and shaped with designer Henk Gerritsen, it embraces organic, biodynamic principles, allowing plants, even so-called weeds, to flourish naturally.
Structured hedges, sweeping borders and mature trees anchor the looser planting, while gardeners gently guide rather than control. As Monty says, it can feel challenging for traditionalists, a place that "questions many long-standing shibboleths and asks us to look at the familiar with fresh eyes".
Open for guided tours until the end of September
Best all-season
Coton Manor Garden, Northamptonshire
Set on a gentle hillside in Northamptonshire, Coton Manor's ten-acre garden flows down from a 17th-century manor house, offering lush colour and interest throughout the seasons. Created in the 1920s and lovingly evolved over successive generations, there are roses everywhere; scrambling over walls and trees and in a dedicated rose garden and walk.
There's also a tranquil bluebell wood, a wildflower meadow and a café serving delicious homemade lunches and teas. An extensive nursery offers unusual plants propagated on site.
Open until the end of September
Best variety
Dyffryn Fernant Garden, Pembrokeshire
"Like a great movie you can watch several times and still see something different" is how broadcaster and garden designer Adam Frost describes Dyffryn Fernant. It's easy to see why: tucked beneath the Preseli uplands in Pembrokeshire, this six-acre garden has been shaped from once-overlooked land into a richly varied landscape.
Rather than resisting the challenging conditions, designer Christina Shand has embraced them, creating distinct environments that flow seamlessly together. Succulents and architectural exotics fill a stony courtyard, a mirrored obelisk glints in the bog garden and geometric grasses sweep through a natural meadow down to a tranquil pond.
Well-behaved dogs on short leads are welcome, with plenty of seating and space for picnics.
Open until October
Best family-friendly
Elsham Hall, Lincolnshire
When we asked gardening broadcaster Mark Lane to recommend his favourite destinations as a wheelchair user, this was his top choice. The estate includes one of the country's largest 18th-century walled gardens, 14th-century carp lakes and an arboretum.
"It's a great day out for plant- and animal-lovers," says Mark. "Who knows, you might even get to see otters, mink, buzzards, dragonflies and kingfishers!"
There's also a sensory garden and an adventure playground for kids.
Open every day, weather permitting
Best for history
Restoration House, Kent
"I've lived in Kent for decades and I think this is one of the county's best-kept secrets," says Country Living's gardening editor Sharon Amos. "Hidden behind the imposing facade of Restoration House (the inspiration for Miss Havisham's abode in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations), it's full of unexpected delights."
The unusually large walled garden provides an unexpected haven just yards off the old high street. Walk through the house and you'll find a box parterre, a formal pool that passes under a wall to link two sections of the garden and a cutting patch filled with peonies, roses and sweet peas.
Mature mulberries and summer citrus in terracotta pots lend a Mediterranean note, while the restored Italianate layout hints at earlier designs uncovered during conservation work. Standing sentinel over it all is an Indian bean tree, which is a seedling from the huge specimen outside Rochester cathedral.
Open until the end of September
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