A Great Garden You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
We just got back from an “Expedition” cruise by Lindblad/National Geographic around the British Isles. Lindblad has small ships (this one had about 150 passengers) with itineraries that include lots of opportunities for nature viewing. One of the stops on this trip was to the Isles of Scilly (we are told they are not the Scilly Isles) which lie in the Atlantic off of the southwest tip of England. One of the islands is Tresco. The entire island is managed by a family that has a long-term lease from the Crown.
The family obtained the lease in 1834, built a home, and started gardening in 1860.
The garden covers 17 acres on the side of a hill, and includes the ruins of Tresco Abbey, which are incorporated into the garden. Since the islands are in the Gulf Stream, the climate is moderate. temperature wise, but wind is a problem, with 100 mile-per-hour winds not uncommon. As a result, they have numerous forty-foot-tall hedges throughout the garden to act as windbreaks. (Our guide told us that they are all pruned by hand from ladders. This is mostly done by interns. They have 8 gardener positions, and only six positions filled at the current time, in case you are looking for a gardener’s job. And, you aren’t afraid of heights.)
The garden has 2,000 species from South America, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, the Canary Islands, and when we were there, many were in bloom, and everything was thriving.
I asked about rabbits, and she said the entire perimeter is fenced to prevent rabbit entry. They have also introduced red squirrels to the garden. The native red squirrels in Great Britain are being eradicated by invasive gray squirrels that were introduced at some point. (These are the squirrels we have in our yards in the USA, which are native here.) They now have 20 pairs of squirrels, and they have developed a taste for Protea flowers. It will be interesting to see how many squirrels they have in say, five years. I also asked about plant escapes from the garden, and as you would expect, that occurs. The dunes are dotted with Agapanthus and there are lots of ice plants on the bluffs at the shore. (Both from South Africa.)
You could easily spend all day there, but we only had about 3 hours, as the ship needed to move on to it’s next port of call. It’s well worth the detour if you happen to be planning a vacation to England and you love exotic gardens.
Lovely garden to add to my aspirational list!
We did that same Lindblad trip last summer, and we loved the garden on Tresco. It was such an unexpected pleasure, and the variety of plantings was extraordinary. And yes, we spent several hours and could easily have stayed longer.
Our many photos, along with the Tresco linen tea towels, remind us of its beauty.
Sandra
Stephanie,
I just love hearing about you, Larry, and Carol. Carol lives near me. I think I shall take my orchid to her clinic to get it repotted and blooming again.
Love Larry’s articles too. He takes the best gardening vacations.
I so miss your Nursery. It’s was the best. I still have many of your plantings in my garden here in Silver Spring.
Donna
Thanks for all of your comments!
Larry does indeed take great vacations.
Think of it this way. If you spent 35 or so years going to Behnke’s five or six days a week, it would be like a vacation every day! You’d have to go to more exotic locations to get away from it all.
Regarding travelling with Lindblad, we started that about five years ago as we realized that driving was becoming more difficult and that they could take us places we had always wanted to visit, like the Galapagos. We like the nature-viewing emphasis of the trips, so we have gone several places with them now.