Chelsea Flower Show Tour 2012 – Glorious Gardens in Spring

May 22-30, 2012

UPDATE UPDATE AS AT FEBRUARY 14TH, 2012

Very exciting news to share … we have our visit to HRH Highgrove Gardens CONFIRMED! The garden of HRH Prince Charles is extremely hard to get tickets to as they sell out almost immediately and in fact the whole of Chelsea week is now fully booked so I am thrilled to be able to share this garden with you. If you are already booked, you are in for a treat and if not booked yet – better get that registration form in soon. I have only 10 spaces left on this tour now. We have to change the long day by day itinerary around to accommodate our visit PLUS I have added a couple more things to this tour that you WILL LOVE so don’t print it out yet. I will advise those booked when to print out the revised itinerary.

Unpack that bag, because you are in just one hotel for the entire tour .. in the beautiful 4 Star Copthorne Tara Hotel London Kensington. It is ideally located in a quiet corner of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and offers convenient access to other areas of London. London, where you will find some of the best attractions in the world, some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and some of the most incredible gardens in the world…and on this tour, we have chosen the best for you PLUS a rare visit to a garden that has until now, only been open to a few. Highgrove, the garden owned by HRH Prince Charles is CONFIRMED! on our list this year, but I must tell you that while on our list it is not confirmed yet. No garden tour can confirm a tour of this garden until the year of the visit. So we have given the garden a special spot that will allow us to have it confirmed on one of two days. That means our tour can change to accommodate Highgrove. As long as HRH does not put a special event in during these two days, we are pretty sure we shall be visiting it.

As you know, the games will be coming to London in 2012 and hotels will be incredibly hard to secure so I am very pleased to say that not only do I have a hotel right in the heart of London for us but also have secured pre and post tour nights. This in itself was very hard to do so far in advance. I only have so many rooms and once gone, they are gone. I would suggest that if you want to come on this tour, you fill in the registration form and get it in to secure your spot. My single rooms are very limited as well.

I have seen many of England’s gardens over the years and this sampling will truly give you a flavour of what English gardens are like.

Manor House at Upton Grey – the most complete and authentic Gertrude Jekyll garden in existence - a living museum of Jekyll design, including guided tour and morning coffee

Westgreen House – a quintessential English manor built of warm red bricks where busts of Gods and Emperors survey from their niches high in the house's facade the enchanting walled garden and the classical lakes and follies beyond. Includes a pre visit talk and ‘Ritz’ Style Afternoon Tea!

Barnsley House – the enchanting garden of the late Rosemary Verey and now a deluxe B & B. Our visit will include a guided tour plus a very special Champagne Afternoon Tea!

Abbey House Gardens – a unique garden where the owners love to show it off – in the nude – however, our visit will be on a day that clothes are worn. We shall have a guided visit here as well.

Full day at Chelsea – the most wonderful garden show you will ever experience including a very comprehensive program of the show and gardens that you can use and keep as a memento.

Stonehenge – we thought it about time to include this mysterious timeless monument.

Full day at Bath where we enjoy a half morning guided visit by a local guide to the Roman Baths and Pumprooms as well as the Bath Abbey plus a guided tour of the Old Orchard Street Theatre & Masonic Museum.

Full day to Tetbury and guided visit of Highgrove. ‘The garden at Highgrove embodies The Prince's environmental philosophy: that it is better to work with Nature than against it.’

Visits to the eclectic garden of the late Christopher Lloyd, Great Dixter, regarded as the epitome of English plantsmanship

and Sissinghurst, the romantic gardens of Vita Sackville-West and her husband Sir Harold Nicholson and one of the most celebrated.

8 nights accommodation including English Breakfast, 3 course Welcome Dinner plus a leisure day so you can add YOUR must visits to this tour..


donna@icangarden.com

click on the above buttons for the complete tour day by day itinerary or the registration forms

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