Please note that this garden is now permanently closed

The original garden owner’s family can be traced back to the Cornish artist Henry Bone R.A. (1755-1834), through the most famous of all Victorian Big Game hunters, Capt. F.C. Selous, friends of whom included US President Theodore Roosevelt.

The gardens were a surprise discovery in February 1999 by Mike and his mother Aileen. By June of that year they moved in to what was an abandoned and derelict mess. Since then they have barely paused for breath doing all the work themselves. The first six months were spent clearing the gardens and walls of ivy, brambles and other unmentionables.

From the outset they wanted to create a stunning summer flower garden within the magic of its Victorian garden walls. Only later did they discover the original Victorian walled garden had been designed as a walled summer flower garden! In Victorian times there were once thirty gardeners and the Victorian history is detailed in a permanent photographic exhibition which includes photographs of the original Victorian household.

Mike and Aileen’s vision has developed rapidly to become one of the most colourful summer gardens were exotic features and plants abound. The 14ft high walls are covered in clematis and wisteria, (there are 100 different clematis alone). There’s a very extensive range of shrubs and herbaceous plants. There are over 50 different thymes in the herb garden, 45 different hosta varieties together with a range of carnivorous plants. A walk-in bamboo grove, a 60ft long alpine house and restored Victorian greenhouses filled with tender climbers.