If you are a garden lover like I am, surely a visit to the Chelsea Flower Show is on your Bucket List! When I am not reading about travel, I am studying garden books. It is the most famous flower show in the world, bursting with fragrance and color. It is held every year from May 20 to 24, and the Royal Horticultural Society does a magnificent job of showing you the latest in garden tools, flower arrangements, garden design, and you can buy books and plants. You are on brain overload after a full day of attending this event.
Why stop there, you could go on a nine day tour of the best loved British gardens, visiting Parham House, Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Wisley, Hidcote Manor, Kiftsgate Court, Highgrove (Prince Charles’s home ) and Blenheim Palace. The tours are lead by garden experts, and you learn so much each day. These names might not mean anything to you, but if you are a member of a garden club, or the Royal Horticultural Society I am sure you have read something about them, all famous in their own way.
Garden tours are very popular, with both men and women of all ages, and there is also a five day tour of the gardens in the Cotswolds, a lovely part of England, visiting the gardens of Buscot Park, Malmesbury, Highgrove, Hidcote Manor and Kiftsgate Court. This tour with a few days in London would be a wonderful holiday. I love the seven day tour of the Netherlands and Belgium, visiting the worlds largest flower auction where l9 million flowers and plants a day begin their journey to florists around the world. A tour of Keukenhof in the heart of the Dutch flower growing area is wonderful. Many years ago I bought 3,000 Tulip bulbs, and when it came to planting them in the garden at my Lake Tahoe home months later, my husband was furious that I had ordered so many. I was amazed at all the boxes; I must have been carried away with the different options. For me to plant them one at a time, I would have still been doing it when the snow arrived. In the end, he dug huge trenches, and I quickly dropped the bulbs from each box and covered the hole. I thought I would be winning a prize from the Truckee Garden Club for the prettiest garden in the High Sierras. I even spent $300 on red cayenne pepper, and sprinkled it over all the trenches which was supposed to be a squirrel deterrent. Alas, the squirrels were sitting watching me, and they ate them all over the winter. I have never heard the end of my tulip mania from my husband. That Spring, I saw one lousy tulip. This is a wonderful tour, go to the Rijksmuseum, visit Aalsmeer, learn the art of cheese making, and end up in Bruges, the Venice of the North.
Italy is always one of the top destinations for people and an 11 day tour of the Great Gardens of Italy is something different. The Italian lakes are a wonderful region, Lake Maggiore, Lake Como, and then go to Florence, and Rome visiting the Vatican. The top ten gardens in Europe are:
1. Monet’s Garden, Giverny, France
2. Generalife, Alhambra, and Granada in Spain
3. Isola Bella and Lake Maggiore in Italy
4. Gardens of Versailes and Ile de France in France
5. Powerscourt and Dublin in Ireland
6. Luxenbourg Gardens and Paris in France
7. Keukenhof Gardens and Lisse in The Netherlands
8. Highgrove and Tetbury in Great Britain
Even if you only go to visit one garden, I find it very rewarding and it’s nice to dream, oh if only my garden looked like that.
Maureen Jones is president of All Horizons Travel at 160 Main Street. Members of her staff are experts in business travel, cruises, and all types of leisure.
