Garden tours

Not at all. Many guests garden seriously and enjoy the shop talk, but plenty come simply because they like beautiful places and want to understand them better. The specialists travelling with you pitch things to the group in front of them, and no question is too basic. 

Experienced horticulturalists, garden designers and specialists who work in gardens themselves. Walking a border with someone who can tell you what a plant is, why it thrives in that particular spot and what they'd have done differently is a different experience from reading the label, and they enjoy the conversation as much as you will. 

Many do. Alongside celebrated gardens open to the public, itineraries often include gardens that open privately for our groups, which can mean seeing them without crowds and hearing from the people who look after them.

Whenever the thing you want to see is at its best, which is why the tours run right through the year. Snowdrops and camellias from February, blossom and bulbs through spring, herbaceous borders and the flower show season in early summer, then autumn colour from October. Each tour is timed around what it's built to show you. 

More than people sometimes expect. Gardens are walked rather than viewed, often on grass, gravel and uneven paths with slopes and steps, and a full day can cover a fair distance at a gentle pace. Each itinerary carries an activity level so you know what to expect before you book. 

Very much so, and many guests travel solo. A shared interest in gardens does most of the work, conversation tends to start with whatever you've just walked round, and friendships formed on tour often outlast it.

Several are built around them, including RHS Chelsea, RHS Malvern and the Sandringham Flower Show, alongside international events such as the Menton Lemon Festival and the International Rose Festival on the French Riviera. These tours pair the show itself with gardens in the surrounding region.