10 Botanical Gardens to Explore in Gloucestershire

The 56-acre arboretum at Batsford is situated just a mile west of the historic market town of Moreton in Marsh in the heart of the Cotswolds. It is home to a huge range of ornamental and fruit trees, conifers, acres, roses, shrubs, herbaceous, and bedding plants. It is owned and run by the Batsford Foundation, a registered charity, and is open to the public daily throughout most of the year.

An eighteenth-century Costwold house with a fine garden. The garden's structure is like that of a renaissance garden but the planting design is Arts and Crafts. It has lawns, fountains, a topiary, sculptures, an orchard, a knot garden, a kitchen garden, a raised walk and herbaceous borders. The garden has been open to the public since 1987.

Cerney House Gardens is a romantic English garden for all seasons. There is a beautiful secluded Victorian walled garden that features herbaceous borders overflowing with colour. There is a well-labelled herb garden and working kitchen garden. The 3.5-acre red brick walled garden has many colourful borders and seating areas. In Spring wander through the Bluebell woods down to the front garden which has more colourful borders.

Highgrove is the private residence of TRHs The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire. The house is noted for its extensive gardens, which receive more than 30,000 visitors a year.

Kiftsgate is a glorious garden to visit throughout the seasons with spectacular views. The gardens, famed for its roses, are the creation of three generations of women gardeners. Started by Heather Muir in the 1920s, continued by Diany Binny from 1950 and now looked after by Anne Chambers and her husband. Kiftsgate Court is now the home of the Chambers family.

Hidcote is an Arts and Crafts garden in the north Cotswolds, a stone’s throw from Stratford-upon-Avon. Created by the talented American horticulturist, Major Lawrence Johnston its colourful and intricately designed outdoor ‘rooms’ are always full of surprises. It’s a must-see if you’re on holiday in the Cotswolds. It is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain and it is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

Westbury Court Garden is a Dutch water garden in Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, England, 9 miles southwest of Gloucester. The garden was designed 1695-1705. The house has gone but the garden survives and has the reputation of being one of the best examples of the 'Dutch Style in England' and of a 'Dutch canal garden'.

The National Trust's Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire, is a Cotswold manor house packed with extraordinary treasures. It is a sixteenth-century country house, best known for its twentieth-century owner, Charles Paget Wade, an eccentric who amassed an enormous collection of objects that interested him. He gave the property to the National Trust in 1951, and his collection is still housed there.

Designed in the 1740s as a fanciful pleasure garden for the owner of Painswick House and his guests, today it’s a place to roam free, to get up close and personal with nature, or to feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you take in the spectacular views of the Cotswold countryside and magical follies.

A majestic Grade I listed Castle located in the Cotswolds. It was the only private castle in England to have a queen buried within the grounds - Queen Katherine Parr, the last and surviving wife of King Henry VIII – who lived and died in the castle. . The castle has 10 notable gardens covering some 15 acres within a 1,200-acre estate nestled within the Cotswold hills.