Duration: 8 days, 7 nights

Investment: $3129 (without air) per person double (will pair same gender roommates) please call for Solo supplement 

This carefully curated tour will combine the best private gardens of Wales with the most unique and interesting public gardens. We will even visit a castle! Our tours bring you into the homes of local gardeners. You will meet them, have time to ask questions, learn about their designs and then enjoy delicious cakes (picture the British Baking show) and tea! This is no ordinary garden tour, ours is intimate and local with a horticultural expert as host.

You don’t need to be a gardener to love this tour. Bring your camera, your love of beauty and desire to touch the country on a local level.

Day 1 – Depart Boston for our overnight flight to Wales

Day 2 – Arrive in England, Heathrow Airport

Depart the airport and head towards Wales. To break up the drive we will visit the historic Tudor castle and grounds at Thornbury Castle. Built in the 1500s, Thornbury Castle has housed kings, queens and dukes over the centuries. Explore the gardens or opt to walk the halls lined with suits of armour and tapestry-hung walls, immersing yourself in English history. Take some time for lunch or simply enjoy afternoon tea and take in the incredible grounds and gardens.

We will arrive later in the afternoon in Llandrindod Wells and check into our hotel for the week. The Metropole Hotel and Spa, a family owned hotel for over 120 years.

Day 2 – Town of Knighton

 Knighton is a small town of about 3,000 people. There are four private gardens we will visit here, each within a few minutes of one another.

Our first garden is a 1/2 acre Victorian garden, full of surprises. The garden features garden art and beehives.

From here we will walk 5 minutes to our next garden.

Brimming with beautiful colors this garden has 40 rose varieties. Wonderful late summer colors. 

After our tour we will stop at The Horse and Jockey for lunch (on own). 

Just 300 yards from the Horse and Jockey, we will walk over to our next garden, which is a town garden behind a Regency Villa of earlier origins. A narrow entrance door opens revealing unexpected calm & timelessness. The formal areas merge with wooded glades leading to a riverside walk.

And our final garden of the day features an amazing Japanese Stroll Garden with borrowed views to Offa’s Dyke. Winding paths pass small pools and lead to Japanese bridges over a natural stream with dippers and kingfishers. 

Day 3 – Carmarthenshire

We will spend the morning through lunch (on own) at the National Botanical Garden of Wales. A center for botanical research and conservation, this garden features the world’s largest single-span glasshouse measuring 110 m long by 60 m wide.

While in the area, we will visit 2 private gardens. Expect to explore wildlife ponds, fruit and vegetable gardens, composting, twig piles, numerous living willow structures, mobiles, swings, chickens, and goldfish.

Day 4 – Powis Castle

Powis survives as a captivating example of a military stronghold which was preserved and renewed by continual occupation. It contains architecture of many different periods, beginning with a medieval square keep and stone hall. Powis’ mellow red gritstone walls make this stately country house rich in history.

The Castle crowns a rocky ridge, with a particularly steep slope to the south-east, which occupies the formal gardens. 

We will enjoy lunch at the garden cafe (on own).

This afternoon is yours free to enjoy our hotel and surrounding areas. Schedule a game of golf, plan to visit the local shops, book a spa treatment or take a walk through the countryside. 

Day 5 – Today we will stay in close proximity to our hotel

There are several gardens in close range to our hotel. Today’s gardens feature many unusual trees and shrubs, a walled garden and woodland walk. You will wander the rose and clematis pergola and explore the bog and water gardens.  One of the gardens is a 150 year old family garden offering many tree specimens, large herbaceous and shrub borders, and a Victorian walled kitchen garden.

Day 6 – Carmarthenshire and Alberglasney

Heading back to Carmarthenshire, we will explore a couple of private gardens before spending much of that day at the Aberglasney Gardens. We will begin and end our day in private gardens, enjoying herbaceous and shrub beds full of cottage garden favorites and many unusual plants. In the woodland garden you will find over 200 types of trees. These gardens are sure to delight with glorious color through late summer and autumn.

We will head to Aberglasney Gardens, made famous by the BBC television series “A Garden Lost in Time” which followed its restoration. Today it is quite simply one of Wales’ finest gardens. Explore more than 10 acres of magnificent gardens with an Elizabethan Cloister Garden at its center.

Day 7 – Welshpool

Four gardens again today, beginning with White Hopton Farm, Horticulturist and author Claire Austin’s private 1½ acre plant collector’s garden designed along the lines of a cottage garden with hundreds of different perennials. Moving on to our next garden exploring, Knot garden, box hedging, formal rose garden, rockery, pond, shrubs, ornamental trees, await, along with an 85 cherry blossom tree orchard. Maesfron Hall, built in an Italian villa style, this 6 acre Georgian estate will delight with a conservatory, grotto, a display bed and even a wine cellar. We will arrange lunch at the Hall (on own). We will end our day at surrounded by 36 species of flowers and grasses including hundreds of wild orchids; Glorious late summer color with parrotias, liriodendrons, cotinus etc. 

Day 8 – Depart to London for our flight home

One last day immersing ourselves in amazing gardens! Today we head back to Heathrow for our flight home. We will stop to take a driving break. The garden owners will share with us their Plantswoman’s cottage garden overflowing with plants, pots and interesting artifacts. HS said: “Such a wonderful peaceful oasis”.

The rest of our day will be spent at the Royal Horticulural Society, Wisley Gardens. 

All gardens on the itinerary are preliminary, pending gardeners approval and availability. We will finalize the itinerary in the May/June timeframe.