Tresco’s world-famous Abbey Garden is a lush, green maze of paths which meander between cacti, date palms and tree ferns; aloes, camellias and lilies. Strolling along these shaded walks and terraces, you’ll discover medieval ruins, delightful sculptures, and a fascinating collection of shipwrecked figureheads. National Collection of Acacia.

Here off the coast of Cornwall, Spring comes early, autumn stays late and winter hardly exists at all. Truly a subtropical paradise, Tresco Abbey Garden is brimming with plants that would stand no chance at all just 30 miles away on the Cornish mainland. Even at the winter solstice there are usually more than 300 species of plant in flower.

The beautiful garden, built in the 19th century around the ruins of a Benedictine Abbey, is home to species from across the world’s Mediterranean climate zones, from Brazil to New Zealand and Burma to South Africa. The 17 acre gardens were established by the nineteenth-century proprietor of the islands, Augustus Smith, originally as a private garden within the grounds of the home he designed and built. Read more ……