If you missed the Chelsea Flower Show and are still looking for inspiration for your garden help is at hand. We pick out seven fabulous gardens that you can weave into your next holiday.
Monet’s Garden, Giverny, France
It’s unlikely that any other garden will have been painted as often as Monet’s in the small French town of Giverny. Some of his most famous works were of this garden. The landscape includes archways of climbing plants and coloured shrubs, the water garden, a Japanese bridge and the water lily pond as well as beautiful patches of wisteria and azaleas.
Villa Lante, Rome, Italy
These gardens are the work of Cardinal Gambara whose love of outdoor living and eating al fresco was the inspiration for creating these gorgeous gardens. It is a Mannerist garden designed to surprise and comprises a harmonious choreography of cascades, fountains and dripping grottoes achieved by Tommaso Ghinucci, a hydraulics engineer.
Château de Versailles, near Paris, France
The grand home of Louis XIV and its exquisite Versailles gardens are nothing short of decadent. The gardens sprawl over 800 hectares of land landscaped by Andre Le Notre in the classic French garden style.
Sanssouci Palace Gardens, Berlin, Germany
(c) wikimedia/Mbzt
Surrounding the former summer palace of the King of Prussia, Frederik the Great in Potsdam, these grounds are splayed out in an intimate baroque style. The king was inspired by Versailles and wanted to compete. The terraces have low grapevines and niches planted with fig trees. The lower levels have the fountains, statues, ornamental gardens and panterres and the borders are planted with a mix of colours and textures of perennials giving a lively, informal look.
The Majorell Garden, Marrakech, Morocco
(c) wikimedia/Viault
This two-and-a-half acre botanical garden was created by French artist Jacques Majorelle in 1924. Much loved by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, they bought it in 1980. The garden has 300 plant and flower species including cacti and exotic plants, ponds, streams and fountains.
Kew Gardens, London, England
Kew may well be the world’s most famous botanic garden. The breathtaking landscapes and the and iconic glasshouses full of rare and beautiful plants are part of the appeal. But on the grounds there are also historic buildings, botanical art galleries and the soaring treetop walkway.
Bahai Gardens, Haifa, Israel
From Mount Carmel you can marvel at the botanic vision stretching downward. There are six hundred cream-hued steps through nineteen monumental water-featured gardens that cascade over the north side of the mountain, each perfectly symmetrical, with clean flower bed lines, brightly coloured shrubs and green, green lawns to die for. The tenth garden frames a colonnade and a golden domed shrine and beyond the shrine a further nine stunning gardens tumble neatly to street level.
Have you got any other examples of amazing gardens? Leave a comment