Gardens to visit in spring and summer – Trevarno

Trevarno Gardens are at the centre of the Trevarno estate near Penzance - seventy acres of gardens and grounds are used to house one of Cornwall's largest and most diverse plant collections. These gardens include many specimen shrubs and trees, a bluebell valley which is brilliantly impressive in spring, ornamental lake with picturesque Victorian Boathouse and formal cascade, Serpentine Yew Tunnel, Sunken Italian Garden, Bamboo collection, extensive Pinetum, Rockery and Grotto, the Great Lawn and Summer Terrace and many other interesting features. The bluebells are quite breathtaking in April and May and given the overplanting of mature beech trees, the evening lighting makes the whole wood rather cathedral-like, which is appropriate as the path carries on to lead to two Pet Cemeteries, one for the family dogs and one for the cats.

Trevarno as a manor house has existed as far back as the year 1245 and has been owned by a succession of notable families over the centuries but in 1995 Trevarno was put up for sale for the first time in over a century.

Work started during the summer of 1996 to provide the basic infrastructure to open the gardens to visitors and the new owners established a museum in 1998 to display part of a collection in the original carriage house. Because the interest and support for this project has been overwhelming, in 1999 Trevarno was established as Britain’s first National Museum of Gardening in a new and much larger purpose designed building. Later, the nostalgic Colin Gregory Vintage Toy Collection was added and in late 2003 a new initiative was created - the Soap Collection which links the history of soap to the organic Trevarno Soap and Skincare Workshops and the current big project is the restoration of the old railway!

Trevarno photograph by abundanceguy, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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