Tresco Gardens

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Tresco Gardens, CornwallThe Tresco Gardens are one of the most popular Cornwall attractions. The Duchy of Cornwall owns the island of Tresco and the The Abbey and its garden are leased to the Dorian Smith family.

The garden is a year-round Kew without the glass, and host to 20,000 exotic plants. Many would have perished on the Cornish mainland, a mere 30 miles away, yet even in the winter here more than 300 plants will be in flower.

In total the garden is home to species from 80 countries, ranging from Brazil to New Zealand, Burma to South Africa. The reason these have flourished is because the designer Augustus Smith built up terraces and wind breaks over a network of walled enclosures built around the Priory ruins. The three terraces face south looking towards the neighbouring isle of St Marys.

The hotter, drier terraces at the top favour South African and Australian plants, those at the bottom provide the humidity that suits flora from New Zealand and South America.

The diversity is greater even than the Southern Mediterranean. Fringing the lush grid of paths criss-crossing the gardens are cacti, date palms and giant, lipstick-red flame trees; rarities like Lobster Claw, great white spires of Echia, brilliant Furcraea, Strelitzia and shocking pink Pelargonium.

Statues symbolic of natural forces punctuate the gardens. The shipwrecked figureheads in Valhalla museum (near the helicopter landing pad) are reminders of the ferocity of local storms that the plants have survived. The layout begins with the original plantings around the Priory and ends with the more recent Mediterranean Garden. All-in-all, this Cornwall attraction is a horticultural world tour condensed into just 17 acres, and visitable within a two-hour period.

Open daily 10-4. Adults £8.50. Children under 14 free.

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