Beautiful botanicals: 10 amazing gardens to visit on holiday

The late 10-time Chelsea Gold Medal winner Beth Chatto OBE established her famous Essex gardens in 1960, creating 7.5 acres of inspiring, sustainable planting in Elmstead, near Colchester, following her own mantra “The right plant for the right place”. What was an overgrown wasteland of bog and brambles is now a paradise of five distinct areas.

Take inspiration as you stroll; Chatto’s Gravel Garden is an impressive display of drought-tolerant plants, while in contrast, the emerald Water Garden is all lush, moisture-loving species.

Come in late summer for the swathes of colour and ornamental grasses of the Reservoir Garden – and stroll through the dappled shade thrown by 100-year-old oaks in the Woodland Garden, in which shade-loving perennials thrive. See the garden as part of Saga’s University of Essex holiday.

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Trebah Gardens

Spanning 26 acres, Trebah is a sub-tropical ravine garden with four miles of footpaths along wooded trails that lead to a pretty beach on the Helford River. It’s an unmissable tour on Saga’s Falmouth University holiday.

Planted more than 180 years, the garden is an enchanting pocket of exotic vegetation, with massive Australian tree ferns and huge bamboos. The garden is lovely at any time of year – the rhododendrons, some 100 years old, bloom in spring, while the star attraction in summer is a giant, triffid-like gunnera, or elephant rhubarb, the leaves of which can grow to an astonishing 10 feet wide.

By autumn, when the gunnera has collapsed under its own weight, Hydrangea Valley is a sea of soft blue and white.

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Keukenhof Gardens

With seven million bulbs blooming in brilliant swathes of scarlet, white, yellow and mauve across 79 acres of gently undulating woodlands and lakes, it’s little surprise that Keukenhof is regarded as one of the most beautiful gardens in the world.

The garden dates from 1857, when landscape architects Jan David Zocher and his son Louis Paul Zocher created the park in the English landscape style. In 1949, a group of 20 leading bulb growers came up with the idea to showcase Keukenhof as a spring park so essentially what you see today is a living catalogue of the wares of 100 growers.

The park is open from late March, the best time for crocuses, daffodils and fragrant hyacinths, to May, with peak tulip time usually around late April. See it as an excursion on Saga’s Keukenhof Gardens and Highlights of Holland cruise.

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Hortus Botanicus

Amsterdam’s fascinating Hortus Botanicus may not rival Keukenhof for its swathes of colour but it’s an enchanting oasis in the city. It’s wonderful at any time of year, too. The garden, one of the oldest in the world, has been here since 1638, when it was planted with tropical species brought back from the expeditions of the Dutch East India Company, including coffee, pineapple and cinnamon. Its original purpose was to grow herbs for medicinal use – its former name was Hortus Medicus and there’s still a fascinating medicinal garden here today.

Explore the flora of the tropics, the desert and the South African Cape in the newly renovated Climate House and admire the insect-eaters in the carnivorous garden, from sundews to Venus flytraps. There’s a gorgeous kitchen garden, too, a riot of herbs and colourful edible plants, from strawberry spinach to the strange-looking purple spiderberry.

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Shore excursions vary by itinerary and are subject to change.

Generalife Gardens

Granada’s exquisite Generalife gardens, built in the 13th century, surround what was the summer palace of the Nasrid kings who ruled Andalucia from the Alhambra, part of the same hilltop complex.

Many of the original Moorish touches remain, including the tiled patios, myrtle hedges, splashing fountains and cooling water channels. Orange and lemon trees are heavy with fruit in early spring, while from April, fragrant jasmine and roses scent the warm air. You can visit this paradise on Saga’s Moorish and Modern Gardens of Spain holiday.

Less restful is the scandal associated with the 700-year-old cypress tree on the Patio del Ciprés de la Sultana. According to legend, this shady spot was the meeting place for two lovers, the wife of Boabdil, the last Nasrid king, and a knight from the Abencerrajes tribe. When Boabdil learned of the betrayal, he had multiple members of the tribe beheaded.

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Goethe and Byron are just two of the poets who have waxed lyrical about enchanting Isola Bella, a tiny island just below Taormina, connected to the mainland by a narrow sandbar. The island was planted in 1890 by English noblewoman Florence Trevelyan, who had allegedly been exiled to Sicily by Queen Victoria on account of an affair with the Queen’s cousin, the future Edward VII.

Lady Trevelyan developed the island with a mix of native Mediterranean scrub and lush tropical blooms that she had collected on her travels and Isola Bella became her sanctuary. You’ll see rock gardens and shaded paths where cycas, giant strelitzia, caper bushes, olive trees, prickly pears and agave, as well as jasmine and pine, are all tastefully integrated around the villa where she loved to spend her time.

Visit the island on Saga’s Sicilian Escape holiday, where you’ll be based in nearby Giardini Naxos.

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Madeira Botanical Garden

Established by the wealthy Reid family in 1881, Quinta do Bom Sucesso, high on a hill above Funchal, lies at the heart of the Madeira Botanical Garden, some 20 acres of lush, brilliantly coloured tropical planting. The garden itself was opened to the public in 1960 and today, more than 2,500 exotic plants from all over the world thrive here.

The mission is of conservation just as much as display, with a seed bank on the premises. You’ll see huge cacti, medicinal plants, topiary, orchids and the ubiquitous strelitzia, while a highlight is the geometric beds, a mosaic of dazzling colour seemingly suspended above the Atlantic Ocean.

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Pamplemousses Botanic Gardens

The Pamplemousses Botanic Gardens, or to use the correct name, the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Garden were founded by Mahé de Labourdonnais in 1735, originally as a vegetable plot.

Some 30 years later, French horticulturalist Pierre Poivre began to cultivate seeds from around the world in order to reduce France’s dependence on spices from Asia. Later, British horticulturalist James Duncan transformed the gardens into an arboretum for palms and other tropical trees.

Today, Pamplemousses is regarded as one of the world’s finest botanical gardens, with specimens ranging from West Indian laurel to Cochinchina lychee, the Chinese camphor tree, the Philippine breadfruit tree, nutmeg, clove and pepper trees.
Don’t miss the ornamental pond filled with Victoria amazonica water lilies, their leaves up to six feet across; January, the Mauritian summer, is the best time to visit on Saga’s Enchanting Mauritius itinerary.

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Butchart Gardens

The 55-acre garden on Vancouver Island, which you can visit on Saga’s Canadian Rockies and Vancouver holiday, is one of the biggest attractions of Victoria. The garden was created in 1904 by Jennie Butchart and is still managed by her descendants today.

Looking at the swathes of tulips and daffodils in spring, the hummingbirds feeding on dazzling fuchsias, the 240 varieties of roses that bloom in summer or the brilliant scarlet and gold of the Japanese Garden in autumn, you’d struggle to believe that this paradise was once an abandoned limestone quarry.

Don’t miss afternoon tea at The Dining Room for decadent dishes with a Canadian twist: trifle made with local peaches and dainty sandwiches topped with wild salmon.

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