Arley Hall is known for many things, but not least its outstanding double herbaceous border planted in 1846, making it the oldest in the country. As the borders gear up to full swing, the rest of the garden is having a party with an extensive grove and woodland walk packed with rhododendrons and azalea. Once you’ve had your multicoloured fill, head to the much-loved and long-running plant fair: expect specialist nurseries including Proctor’s Nursery (for perennials, trees and shrubs) and Petrichor Bulbs, for spring bulbs, including large Crinum asiaticum, alliums and camassia. The head gardener, Gordon Baillie, will be around to give advice, and the Gardener’s Kitchen serves hot food, drinks and cake.
Toby’s garden festival, Devon, 27-28 April
The venue is the stunning deer park at Powderham Castle, on the banks of Exe estuary. The park harks back to the 1700s and contains venerable oaks, lime and planes; there’s an extensive American garden with new world plants and a Victorian walled garden and crumbling picturesque belvedere. It’s family friendly, with a children’s camp offering bush craft, fire lighting and wood whittling, plus more than 100 West Country growers. Visit Floyds Climbers – unusual and traditional clematis and other climbers – or Pounsley Plants for old-fashioned roses including the Devon rose, Rosa Devoniensis – a creamy white magnolia rose, listed as a heritage plant of the county.
Arundel Castle, West Sussex, 29 April
This is the magnificent Arundel Castle’s first spring plant fair and there will be 20 specialist nurseries with an emphasis on locally grown, unusual and high-quality specimens. Visit Blueleaf Plants for unusual succulents; Hardy’s Cottage Plantsfor geums including G.‘Totally Tangerine’; and Swallowfield’s Nursery for Primula auricula – it is also setting up a traditional auricula theatre. Sixty thousand tulip bulbs have been planted in the garden. Not that the grounds need tulips to sing: they are packed with features from formal gardens with central canals and domed pergolas, Italianate terrace, and an organic kitchen garden with beautifully trained fruit and an impressive vinery.
Birmingham rare plant fair, Winterbourne House, University of Birmingham, 20 May
Winterbourne House and Garden, a short walk from University Station, is an arts and craft suburban villa with a seven-acre site and stunning walled garden with famous crinkle-crankle wall (it’s wavy, to create warm niches). It’s the university’s botanic garden and has glasshouses for cacti, carnivorous plants, alpines and tropicals. The event is part of the Rare Plant Fair umbrella, so expect lots of small, unusual nurseries including Chris Cooke for rare hardy and half-hardy bulbs, herbaceous plants and shrubs; the Cottage Herbery with peat-free herbs and unusual edibles; and Greens Leaves nursery where Paul Green will sell unusual hollies, willows, Corokia cotoneaster and the twisted stemmed Sophora ‘Little Baby’.
Helmingham Hall spring plant fair, Stowmarket, 27 May
The red-bricked Tudor Hall has a moat and its drawbridges are pulled up every night. In the grounds are herbaceous borders, a Victorian walled kitchen garden, apple and pear orchard, and parterres. The plant fair features excellent nurseries including Tree Peony Company from Yorkshire for rare, scented tree peonies from central and north-west China. Suffolk Plant Heritage has rare plants such as the slender, pink flowered Fuchsia ‘Whiteknights Pearl’ which is free to the first 800 visitors. There’s a marquee with plant doctors and workshops, and guided tours with owner and garden designer Xa Tollemache (booking essential).
High Galnau Manor, North Monmouth, Wales, 3 June
High Galnau was home to Henry Avray Tipping, the garden designer and architectural historian. It has 12 acres, an Edwardian glasshouse and large pergola. Stone steps go down to the stream garden with its fernery and primula beds. Enjoy the rhododendron and azalea groves or take in the views over the Usk Valley with a slice of homemade cake.
At the plant fair, look out for Mrs Mitchell’s Kitchen And Garden for agapanthus, hardy geraniums, miniature hostas, monardas and peonies. Also Millwood Plants, which specialises in unusual cottage garden plants and promises to bring the bleeding heart Dicentra ‘Burning Hearts’, dwarf meadow rue Thalictrum kiusianum and white lace flower, Orlaya grandiflora. rareplantfair.co.uk
Scampston spring plant fair, Malton, North Yorkshire, 4 June
The gardens are distinctly modern within the setting of the 18th-century walls of the original kitchen garden. Designer Piet Oudolf has planted a modern perennial meadow that sits alongside the traditional Capability Brown parkland. Wack’s Wicked Plants specialises in carnivorous plants and grows pitcher plants, saracenias and venus fly traps. Visit Dark Star Plants for dark flowers or foliage. Leave time for scones: the cream teas are highly regarded.
Rare plant fair, Waterperry Gardens, Oxfordshire, 17 June
Waterperry Gardens was home to the horticulturist Beatrix Havergal’s residential School of Horticulture for Women. There’s a knot garden, rose garden and a beautiful canal of waterlilies. This is another rare plant fair and is packed with great nurseries: Cotswold Garden Flowers for perennials, including heleniums, asters, astibles, kniphofias, sanguisorbas, rudbeckias, and ferns and grasses; Home Farm for delphiniums, and Hilltop Garden for dahlias.
