Cornish Garden Delights

With the children back to school and holiday crowds shrinking, September is an ideal time to visit Cornwall and enjoy the splendour of the county’s exotic gardens in relative peace and tranquility. Courtesy of its mild almost frost free climate Cornwall boasts some of the finest plant collections and estates in the country.

Among the best known are Tregothnan near Truro which is managed by the Earl Grey family and of course includes England’s only tea plantation. The mysterious Lost Gardens of Heligan in Pentewen near St Austell which were rediscovered after the First World War is considered to be one of  Europe’s key botanical centres. Nearby is the Eden Project in Bodelva with micro climates from around the world in its famous biomes. Details of these and many other Cornish garden delights can be found www.gardensofcornwall.com and www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Two premiere hotel and lodge spa resorts with their own extensive gardens and which provide ideal bases from which to explore Cornwall’s many cultivars  are Hustyns, a luxury country hotel with an exclusive health and beauty spa is just outside the historic town of Wadebridge and Trenython Manor an elegant English stately home converted into a hotel with country lodges and a spa overlooking St Austell Bay.