Travel Stories: English Gardens Tour (9)
(This is the 9th in a series of blog posts about the 2018 English Gardens Tour I led.)
On May 22nd, we visited two gardens: Sissinghurst Castle Garden and Nymans Gardens. Everyone in my group was particularly excited about visiting Sissinghurst because it is definitely a bucket-list garden. Getting to Sissinghurst required a great deal of planning, though!
Despite making all of our trip reservations several months prior to leaving Spokane, we ran into a snag. The folks who schedule group tours of Sissinghurst had instituted a new policy. That means they only permitted a certain amount of groups at a time. I later learned this was because their parking lot can only accommodate a small number of buses. Of course, our group was traveling in a large coach.
And, as our luck would have it, Sissinghurst was booked solid with groups for the month of May. Perhaps that’s because the Chelsea Flower Show is in May. As a result, more groups are traveling to England to see beautiful gardens.
The travel agency that our agent worked with repeatedly called Sissinghurst in the months prior to our arrival. They wanted to find out if any previously scheduled-groups had cancelled. No such luck. (I have to hand it the agency for at least trying!)
They realized the problem stemmed from a lack of parking space. The agency decided to rent 4 minivans to still get our group to see the gardens. Bless their hearts. And that should have been the end of that. But…
On the morning we were to depart for Sissinghurst, our tour escort (Cosetta) got a phone call from the minivan rental company indicating the 4 minivans had somehow been involved in an accident (we still don’t know the story behind that) but they assured her that two large vans were coming to pick us up.
Our first thought was, “But if the vans are too large, what if they don’t let us in the parking lot?!!” Cosetta and I sweated bullets all the way to the gardens but, miraculously, we got in. What a relief!
After all of that, we soon were standing in the middle of Sissinghurst Castle Garden. And we all had broad smiles on our faces. This was my third visit to the garden and I have to say it was just as special as the first time.
Now for a little background:
Sissinghurst has had an interesting history that includes housing 3,000 French sailors during the Seven Years War in the mid-1700s, and as a poor house in the 19th century, where workers repaired buildings and tended to the property in exchange for housing and food.
The garden took shape after Harold Nicolson and his wife, Vita Sackville-West, purchased Sissinghurst in 1930. Harold designed the formal layout of the garden and Vita filled it with the stunning plant combinations she became known for.
One of the most famous aspects of the garden is the iconic fairytale tower, which provides lovely overhead views of the areas of the garden. Other fabulous features include the white garden, the formal herb garden and the moat walk. The vegetable garden and orchard are impressive as well. And, of course, there’s a very nice gift shop and lovely cafe.
Here are some photos from our visit:
The above photo is part of the vegetable garden, where they’re growing peas and beans.
When it was time to leave Sissinghurst, we did so reluctantly although I’m sure we all felt extremely fortunate that we were able to visit the garden after all of our challenges in getting there!
After a little over an hour’s drive, we arrived at Nymans Gardens. It is considered to be one of the National Trust’s premier gardens. This was my second visit to Nymans.
In the 1860s, German Ludwig Messel moved to London, became a stockbroker and made his fortune. His Georgian-style home was built as an escape to the country, a place to house his art collection, as well as a place where he hoped he would fit into society rather than be an outsider.
One of his legacies is the “pinetum” which is a unique collection of trees planted to provide shelter for the gardens. There are also herbaceous borders, clipped boxwood hedges, topiary, fountains, tree-lined avenues and beautiful vistas. The gardens were created by three generations of the Messel family and are in the Edwardian style.
The house is quite grand, although one immediately realizes there’s something a bit wrong with it (see photo directly above). That’s because a fire in 1947 left it partially in ruins, which creates quite a stark contrast to the beautiful landscape.
Here are some photos from our visit to Nymans:
You can learn more about Sissinghurst Castle Garden by going to this National Trust page. And for more information on Nymans Garden, click here.