Vote for Garden of the Year
The Garden of the Year Award, sponsored by Christie's, recognises the importance of some of the country’s most spectacular gardens with outstanding horticultural and public appeal. Vote below for your favourite garden.
Voting for the 2023 Garden of the Year Award has now closed. The results will be announced at the Historic Houses AGM in November. Read about the six nominees for this year’s award below.
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Read about the 2023 nominees
Blair Castle Gardens, Perthshire
The 9.5 acre walled garden at Blair Castle tells the story of how life over the past 270 years has evolved. Visitors can enjoy following The Sculpture Trail, which includes a mixture of contemporary and eighteenth century sculpture through the castle gardens and grounds, while Diana’s Grove - a tranquil wooded area adjacent to the castle - offers an opportunity to enjoy some of the country’s finest and tallest trees.
Hergest Croft Gardens, Herefordshire
With stunning views towards the Black Mountains and next to Offa's Dyke Path, these horticulturally important gardens contain more than 5,000 rare trees and shrubs. Created over 120 years by five generations of the Banks family, the 70 acre garden holds the National Collection of Maples and Birches plus over 80 Champion Trees.
Whether you are a keen gardener in search of inspiration, a dedicated dendrologist, discerning botanist or just looking for somewhere green and peaceful for a stroll, visiting this unique and atmospheric garden is a truly memorable experience.
Dunvegan Castle Gardens, Isle of Skye
Dunvegan Castle’s five acres of formal gardens began life in the eighteenth century.
In stark contrast to Skye's barren moorland, the castle’s Water Garden, Round
Garden, Walled Garden, and woodland walks provide a hidden oasis for an
eclectic mix of flowers, exotic plants, shrubs, and specimen trees framed by
shimmering pools fed from waterfalls and streams flowing down to the sea.
After experiencing the Water Garden with its islands replete with a colourful
plant variety, wander through the elegant surroundings of the formal Round
Garden featuring an ilex crenata parterre as its centrepiece. In what was formerly the castle’s vegetable garden, the Walled Garden now contains a diverse range of plants and flowers.
Glenarm Castle Walled Garden, County Antrim
Despite its historic setting, this garden is in many ways a new garden. Having been completely restored and replanted by Randal and Aurora Antrim, with the help of garden designer Catherine FitzGerald and renowned plantsmen including the late Nigel Marshall and now Neil Porteous, it reimagines the original purpose of a Walled Garden with its ornamental plantings of fruit trees in garden ‘rooms’. These range from a crab apple garden underplanted with wildflowers, to an ornamental pear garden.
There are thousands of tulips and other bulbs when they open in spring; fine collections of hostas, peonies, and roses in June. In July the garden is bursting with colour, with all the wonderful herbaceous plants and flowers.
Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute
Mount Stuart Trust has been working to revive the Thomas Mawson designed Calvary Garden in the grounds of Mount Stuart House.
The 10-acre site was originally designed by renowned garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner Thomas Hayton Mawson and commissioned by the 4th Marquess of Bute in 1896. The new Calvary garden includes two large ponds, with a chain of cascading waterfalls flowing down to the Mount Stuart’s Wee Garden, creating a fantastic new visitor attraction with areas for pond dipping, picnic tables, and relaxing.
Scampston Walled Gardens, North Yorkshire
Scampston Walled Garden is a beautiful contemporary garden, featuring
modern, perennial meadow planting alongside more traditional areas. Set within the eighteenth century walls of the original kitchen garden, today the Walled Garden has an exciting and unashamedly modern feel to it and complements the adjacent eighteenth century 'Capability' Brown parkland.
Visitors are encouraged to meander and enjoy the garden at their own pace in any order they wish.
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