National Garden Scheme Article - April/May 25
National Garden Scheme – On Your Marks…Get Set…Visit!
With the season’s county brochure currently available in Warwickshire & West Midlands libraries, garden centres and information centres, this is the perfect time to take a moment and plan many a delightful visit to our gardens and their friendly owners, with plant sales and delicious homemade teas an added attraction. The combined counties’ funds generated by these happy outings nationwide result in millions of pounds to support our nursing and palliative care beneficiaries in their vital work.
With an area from the Cotswolds on the Oxfordshire/Gloucestershire border to our northernmost gardens Sutton Coldfield and Ansley, the below is but a selection from our booklet which, this year, features no fewer than 26 new gardens for visitors to explore. The month of May showcases our ever-popular Ilmington and Pebworth village openings, with Burmington Grange also opening the gates to its elegant garden. For full details of all openings, please visit ngs.org.uk.Thank you.
Sunday 27th April
Broadacre Grange Road, Dorridge, Solihull, B93 8QA
John Woolman, 07818 082885, Admission £7, children free.
Homemade teas provided by Bentley Heath Country Market members. Local honey and preserves for sale. Dogs on leads welcome.
Managed organically, Broadacre is a landscaped nature garden with pools, lawns and trees, beehives, vegetable area, adjoining stream and wildflower meadows featuring the evocatively named twayblade & pyramidal wild orchids.
Owner John Woolman recalls Broadacre’s interesting history, “We have opened for the NGS since 2013, but previously my grandfather opened the garden in a big way for the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society (now renamed Perennial, one of the NGS’s beneficiaries) in the 1950s just after he had redesigned it. The Society ran a home in Berkshire for retired gardeners who had been in tied lodgings but would have nowhere to live once they retired. Sutton Seeds used to sponsor our openings then and would send him all their new seeds to trial!”
Sunday 4th May
Cedar House Wasperton, Warwick, CV35 8EB
07836 532914, david.burbidge@burbidge.org.uk, www.cedarhousegardens.co.uk
5 miles from Warwick. Turn off A429 into Wasperton. Only one road in the village. What3words app: wool.parsnips.trickles. Open 1.30pm-5pm. Admission £8, children free. Homemade teas at Wasperton Village Hall.
Six-acre former vicarage gardens, extensive Springtime tulip and rhododendron. Water meadow garden, woodland glade, mix of young and mature specimen trees, including two notable vintage trees, tranquil grass and bamboo area leading to the swimming pool garden. Varied seating areas. Interesting walks across fields to the River Avon, Charlecote and Hampton Lucy.
Friday 16th May
Kenilworth Castle B2/B3 Castle Green, Kenilworth, CV8 1NG
Evening opening 5.30pm-7.30pm. Admission £20, children free. Pre-booking essential, please email fundraising@english-heritage.org.uk or visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenilworth-castle/events. Light refreshments available.
English Heritage with the National Garden Scheme is offering the chance to visit Kenilworth Castle’s gardens in the early evening when the site is closed to the public. At this exclusive event, guests meet a member of the Garden Team for a tour of the gardens, discover how these are managed and experience the tranquillity and colourful planting of this historic place.
Words & Images © Lily Farrah
Roe Deer photograph © Gemma Lewis Smith
