Northwest Horticultural Society Classic and Contemporary Gardens of England J u l y 13-2 2, 2 0 1 8 TRIP AT A GLANCE 4 nights in Oxford - De Vere Oxford Thames **** 3 nights Royal Tunbridge Wells - The Spa Hotel **** 2 nights London - K+ K Hotel George **** Bring a sun hat (and maybe your wellies) and join the Northwest Horticultural Society and renowned plantsman Dan Hinkley, to experience the ultimate garden lover s adventure to London, County Kent, Oxford and the Cotswolds. You'll enjoy insider access to many of England's most famous gardens and visits to multiple private gardens. Space is limited.
NHS GARDENS & PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Insider access to many private gardens The Cotswolds Great Dixter Gardens Sissinghurst gardens Stowe gardens Rousham gardens Pettifers Garden Broughton Grange Garden Bury Court Garden Gravetye Manor garden RHS Wisley Gardens Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Oxford Botanical Gardens University of Oxford College Gardens Hidcote Manor Garden Kiftsgate Gardens The charming English countryside A wonderful group of fellow NHS garden lovers IT S INCLUDED With NHS host Gillian Mathews and Plantsman, Dan Hinkley Nine nights four star hotel accommodation in Oxford, Tunbridge Wells and London Entrances to all gardens and museum as listed All breakfasts plus nine additional multi-course meals in charming settings Transport by private air conditioned motor coach Guided tours (where available) of all gardens by head gardener, gardener or owner Gratuities for your driver and guide TRIP AT A GLANCE 10 Days/9 Nights $4,475 per person, double occupancy (land) $995 single supplement (waived if you are willing the share) Tour starts in Oxford on July 13, 2018 Tour ends in London on July 22, after breakfast SAVE $200 Pay your final balance by check and save $100 Travel alumni save $100
The more one gardens, the more one learns; and the more one learns, the more one realizes how little one knows. Vita Sackville-West YOUR NHS GARDEN JOURNEY BEGINS DAY 0: Depart the USA for Oxford via London Travel tip: Remember you'll need to depart the US no later than July 12. However, if you have the time, you may wish to arrive a few days early and explore London s Kew Gardens, catch a play at Shakespeare s Globe Theatre and visit London s great museums! Or, take in the many sites in and around Oxford such as Churchill s birthplace and ancestral home Blenheim Palace or the outstanding Ashmolean Museum. There is never enough time in London and Oxford! DAY 1: Friday, July 13 - Your Garden Journey Begins in Oxford Welcome to the United Kingdom! Plan to meet your hosts and guides at 6:00pm in the lobby of our Oxford hotel for a welcome orientation followed by dinner hosted by Gillian Matthews and Dan Hinkley. Getting to Oxford is easy from Heathrow, Gatwick and London. Please visit this link for information about transportation. Sleep in Oxford (D) DAY 2: Saturday, July 14 - Stowe Gardens and Rousham Garden This morning we set off to discover the classic landscapes of William Kent and Capability Brown, starting with Stowe Gardens. The scale and beauty of Stowe have attracted visitors for over 300 years. Picture-perfect views, winding paths, lakeside walks and temples create a timeless landscape, reflecting the changing seasons. Full of hidden meaning, the gardens were created as an earthly paradise and still cast their spell today.
After a tour of the gardens and lunch we will visit Pettifers garden, on our way to Rousham. The Rousham landscape garden is a place of pilgrimage for students of the work of William Kent (1685-1748). Rousham represents the first phase of English landscape design and remains almost as Kent left it, one of the few gardens of this date to have escaped alteration. Sleep in Oxford (B, L) DAY 3: Sunday, July 15 - The Cotswolds and Hidcote Manor and Gardens Today we ll discover two of the most beautiful gardens in the Cotswolds: Hidcote Manor and Gardens and Kiftsgate. Hidcote Manor and Gardens is one of the most influential and famous of all English gardens. Hidcote was created in the 1930s by American, Lawrence Johnston. Johnston employed his skills as a designer and a horticulturalist to make a superbly dramatic garden of outdoor rooms, each with a theme or particular season of interest. The garden is packed with wonderful planting and visual surprises. You ll have free to time explore the gardens and enjoy an independent lunch before heading to Kiftsgate. Heather Muir created the garden at Kiftsgate, which up until 1920 had consisted of a paved formal garden in front of the portico, with a field and wooded banks beyond. Heather was helped and inspired by her lifelong friend Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor. She decided that the garden would develop organically, rather than planning everything on paper. This has given the garden a distinctly feminine feel, almost in direct contrast to the more masculine lines being employed by Johnston at Hidcote, and her gentle touch is being continued by her granddaughter Anne Chambers. We'll return to Oxford for dinner. Sleep in Oxford (B, D)
DAY 4: Monday, July 16 - Broughton Grange and Worcester College Gardens After breakfast we set out to explore Broughton Grange. Prior to purchase by the present owner in 1992, Broughton Grange was owned for 200 years by the Morrell family. The gardens are beautifully set in 350 acres of parkland, farmland and open meadow. The walled garden is a new section of the garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith. It is a 60 square meter space which until recently was a paddock. Now, full of flowers and vegetables, it appears to have been here for decades. We will have lunch at Broughton Grange and then head back to Oxford. In Oxford we will have a tour of the award winning Worcester College Garden, one of the Oxford College Gardens, and the Oxford Botanic Garden. Sleep in Oxford (B, D) DAY 5: Tuesday, July 17 - South to Royal Tunbridge Wells and Bury Court Gardens En-route to Royal Tunbridge we ll stop to admire the dynamic and contrasting designs of Piet Oudolf and Christopher Bradley-Hole at Bury Court. We arrive in Royal Tunbridge Wells in the late afternoon. Sleep in Royal Tunbridge Wells (B, D) DAY 6: Wednesday, July 18 - Gravetye Manor Gardens The gardens at Gravetye Manor are a very special place and can be considered amongst the most influential in English gardening history. The manor became the home of the creative, innovative and revolutionary gardener, William Robinson in 1884. Robinson spent his remarkable life as a professional gardener and botanist, but made his fortune through writing about his experiences and ideas on
The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies Gertrude Jekyll horticulture. His most notable works include The English Flower Garden, which is one of the best-selling horticultural books of all time, and the hugely influential title, The Wild Garden. Now under the guidance of Head Gardener Tom Coward, who worked for three years alongside Fergus Garrett at Great Dixter, the garden is undergoing a major restoration project in homage to Robinson s experimental style of garden. Enjoy a special lunch here before returning to Royal Tunbridge. Sleep in Royal Tunbridge Wells (B, L) DAY 7: Thursday, July 19 - Sissinghurst Garden and Great Dixter Sissinghurst Garden was created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West, poet and garden writer, and her husband Harold Nicholson. The remains of an Elizabethan mansion with twin towers and rambling, low out buildings, crumbly red-brick walls and open courtyards make a wildly romantic setting. The most famous of the many gardens is Vita s innovative White Garden, a poetic composition of white and off-white flowers, set off by green, grey and blue-tinted foliage plants, such as ferns, artemisia, sea kale and grasses. Sissinghurst is a pilgrimage site for gardeners worldwide! After lunch, and a visit to another private garden, we are off for a visit and private tour of Great Dixter, once home of famed gardening writer and plantsman Christopher Lloyd. His garden follows the crisp design laid out by Sir Edwin Lutyens prior to World War I. Yew hedging and flagstone paths divide the sevenacre garden into spaces of different character and purpose. Dynamic and bold planting is the garden's theme and most famous is the view down the Long Border, a richly planted sunny border filled with mixed annuals, perennials, bulbs, shrubs, small trees and climbing plants that perform with brilliant color over a long season. We have been invited to enjoy a private tour and evening with Dan Hinkley and Fergus Garrett, Great Dixter Head Gardener. We return to Royal Tunbridge Wells in the early evening. Sleep in Royal Tunbridge Wells (B, L)
DAY 8: Friday, July 20 - North to London via Wisley Gardens The Royal Horticultural Society was given Wisley in 1903, although at that time only a small part of the 60-acre estate was actually cultivated as a garden, the remainder being wooded farmland. Today the garden covers over 200 acres and offers a fascinating blend of the beautiful with practical and innovative design and cultivation techniques. For many, it is the beauty and tranquility of the garden that captures the imagination, with its richly planted borders, luscious rose gardens and the exotica of the glasshouses. Wisley is also a leading experimental garden where cultivation techniques are tried and tested. Sleep in London (B, L) DAY 9: Saturday, July 21 - The Barbican and Olympic Park Today we explore two of London s newest and exciting landscapes, created by Nigel Dunnett, Professor of Planting Design at Sheffield University. The Barbican is Europe s largest arts and conference complex, and also includes a significant residential community. It is a noted example of uncompromising modernist architecture, built mostly in the 1970s. Most of the landscape elements, including the water bodies, are podium landscapes or landscapes above structure : roof gardens and green roofs, with car parks, the arts complex, and recreational facilities beneath. Previously, the roof gardens comprised lawns, flower beds, trees and shrubs, which required continual irrigation and a high maintenance regime. In 2013, following re-waterproofing of the roof gardens, the opportunity arose for completely new plantings to be installed. The new design takes a radically different approach. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is the UK s largest new urban park. 6 million visitors came to the park during the Olympic Games. As well as remaining a sporting and entertainment venue, the Olympic Park now caters for a wide range of everyday uses and users. Nigel Dunnett was appointed one of the principal planting design and horticultural consultants to ensure that the park was an expression and a celebration of forward-looking horticulture and design, and a demonstration of what a sustainable and ecologically-orientated park could be. The result, a collaboration with designer Sarah Price, is a series of World Gardens. Early this afternoon we'll celebrate with a farewell lunch and toast to our grand garden adventure! Sleep in London (B, L)
DAY 10: Return Home with a Lifetime of memories! KNOW BEFORE YOU GO Reservations and Deposits: Early reservations are essential to guarantee space on the date you wish to travel. A per person deposit of $500 is needed to confirm your space on most journeys. We prefer payment to be made by check, but we also accept Visa, MasterCard or American Express. You can make your secure credit card deposit online, by phone or by mail. Once the deposit is processed, a deposit packet is sent with pertinent journey details. Questions? Call our helpful travel staff at 800-723- 8454 Health Matters: It is the responsibility of each guest to be aware of their physical abilities or limitations, and to be in sufficient good health to undertake the trip. To make the most of your journey and participate in the various planned group activities, you should be able to be on your feet and walk unassisted for two to three hours (often over uneven cobblestones or pathways) with frequent standing. If you have questions about the physical requirements for your journey, please email or call our travel office. Concerts, Gardens, Festivals and Events: If, for any reason, the organizers of a scheduled concert, garden, festival or event cancel or postpone a planned activity with little or no notice, Earthbound Expeditions will do its utmost to secure a similar event or secure another concert(s). Strikes, unscheduled delays, lack of funds and acts of God are beyond the control of Earthbound Expeditions. Cancellation of an event, festival or concert is not cause for refund. Hosted Journeys: If a host or special guest is unable to attend as planned, Earthbound Expeditions will do its utmost to find another host who has similar interests, talents expertise. The inability of a host to participate in a tour is not grounds for a full or partial refund. -Itinerary Subject to Change
YOUR GARDEN EXPERT Dan Hinkley is a teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant, nurseryman, naturalist, and gardener. Above all, he is committed to solid and sustainable horticultural practices, above average garden plants, landscapes of distinction and raising the collective awareness of the diversity of plant life on Earth as well as the magic and mysteries of our natural world. RESERVATIONS 800.723.8454