10 great gardens around Wales

Many of the most famous gardens across Wales are run by the National Trust. With exotic plants, friendly animals, picnic spots and more, don’t miss these 10 horticultural highlights.

The National Botanic Garden of Wales is the most visited garden in Wales and has more than 6,000 different plant varieties spread across 560 acres (227ha) of beautiful countryside.

There’s an inspiring range of themed gardens, the world’s largest single-span glasshouse, the British Bird of Prey Centre, a tropical Butterfly House, play areas and a national nature reserve, all set in a Regency landscape. They run a packed programme of events and courses throughout the year.

A 15th century poet praised the ‘nine green gardens’ of Aberglasney, but this medieval gem had almost vanished until the gardens, and the mansion at their centre, were saved in the 1990s. They’ve been beautifully restored and planted into a dozen themed areas, which are offset by cloisters, pools, parapets, arches and the surrounding woodlands.

The superb location gives Dyffryn Fernant a head start, tucked away in the folds of north Pembrokeshire, with the coast on one side, and the Gwaun Valley and Preseli Hills on the other. It’s taken the best part of 25 years for this imaginative six-acre (2.5ha) garden to emerge from the wild landscape, but it’s described by The Times as ‘the best domestic garden in Wales’.

Bwlch Y Geuffordd Gardens in Aberystwyth offers a variety of beautiful flowers, shrubs, and trees. Explore the wildlife area, walk by the pond and enjoy the garden sculptures, and buildings. There are plenty of places to sit and relax with a picnic. Children can have fun music making, exploring and dragon hunting. 

Flanked by the Daugleddau Estuary, the 40 acres (16ha) surrounding 13th century Picton Castle include ancient trees, mazes, ferns, wild flowers and rare species. Children are made especially welcome: a kids trail through the gardens stops off at an adventure playground, herb garden and pond.

Japanese gardens, lakes, wildflower meadows, bluebell woods, towers, chapels and gazebos are among the eye-catching features at this 19th century idyll. Clyne Gardens has a nationally important collection of rhododendrons, pieris and enkianthus, which produce a blaze of early summer colour. The gardens were created by the Vivian family of industrialists/barons.

Treborth Botanic Garden is Bangor University’s living laboratory situated on the shores of the Menai Strait, welcoming over 70,000 visitors per year. Comprising native, maritime, ancient woodland, species-rich unimproved grassland, managed borders, plus an arboretum. There are two ponds, a wildlife garden area, apple orchard and many mature trees and shrubs. Six glasshouses are maintained for different temperature-climatic conditions, including special collections of orchids, cacti, succulents, and carnivorous plants.

The site also includes an attractive, well-used teaching laboratory as well as the UK’s largest rhizotron, a carbon-capture research laboratory. The garden offers free access to the public at all times and the glasshouses are open during weekdays when staff or volunteers are present. The Wales Coast Path winds through the woodland, taking in Victorian features of historic interest including Sir Joseph Paxton’s remnant veteran trees, cascade, and foundations of the famous Britannia Park.

The Botanic Garden staff are supported by the Friends of Treborth, a very successful charitable organisation with more than 400 members, who in addition to providing an essential volunteering role, organise a diverse calendar of events, such as lectures, workshops, field outings, garden visits, plant sales and open days to fundraise and promote the valuable conservation and educational of the garden.

Dewstow Gardens are a remarkable tale of lost-and-found. The original Edwardian gardens were buried in the 1940s and returned to farmland, and only rediscovered in 2000. The excavations revealed ponds, rills, rock gardens, and an entire labyrinth of underground grottoes , tunnels and sunken ferneries – all painstakingly restored to their former glory.

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis is famous for creating the Italianate fantasy village of Portmeirion, but his real passion was closer to home. Plas Brondanw is the property he inherited more than a century ago. Its gardens are the legacy of a man who spent much of his life and every penny he had on them. These days their magnificent landscaping – part of a site built in the mid-16th century – offers yews, an orangery and splendid mountain views.

The tranquil Wye Valley Sculpture Garden lies among the ancient wooded slopes of the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It’s been managed organically for 40 years, and has abundant herbaceous borders, a pond, woodland areas, an orchard and meadows, all providing a rich habitat for wildlife. Sculptures by local artist Gemma Wood are placed harmoniously around the garden.