It’s the time of year for summer holidays, travelling and seeing the world. If you’re heading off to a new place, you might want to visit some of the local attractions, including beautiful gardens around the world. We’ve put together a guide to just a few of the best gardens around the globe, although there are so many more!
Europe
Italy
Villa d’Este, Tivoli
The Villa d’Este is a Renaissance garden on the grounds of a villa commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este in the 16th century. He was one of the wealthiest cardinals of all time and a prominent patron of the arts in Italy during the Renaissance. It’s known for its beautiful fountains and water features, and contains sculptures that date back to the 4th century.
France
Gardens of Versailles
Jardins du Château de Versailles were commissioned by Louis XIV who considered the gardens as important as the Versailles palace. They cover around 800 hectares and showcase a formal French Garden style, which focuses on imposing order on nature. It includes woodland, canals and over 600 fountains.
Claude Monet’s Garden, Giverny
In Northern France, Claude Monet’s garden is world renowned. It’s split into two parts, a water garden and a flower garden, and shows some of the stunning areas that Monet captured in his paintings. He was inspired by Japanease gardens and diverted the river that ran nearby to supply the water for the pond, which contains the famous water lilies.
Netherlands
Keukenhof, Lisse
The keukenhof, also known as the Garden of Europe is the world’s largest flower garden. 7 million flower bulbs are planted every year across the 32 hectares. While it couldn’t not be included on our list, the best time to visit is mid-April when the tulips are in bloom, but the garden is open mid-March to mid-May (varying specifically each year).
Worldwide
Thailand
Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, Pattaya City
The Nong Nooch botanical gardens displays the largest collection of flowering plants in Thailand, with plants from more than 670 different species all native to the country. It’s 500 acres with a 1.1km walkway winding through the tropical gardens. If you’re near Pattaya on your holidays, this is well worth a visit.
USA
Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona
A unique garden on our list, the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona is a garden of cacti and other desert plants. It display 140 acres with over 21000 arid-climate plants with 169 extremely rare species. In the spring, you’ll also be able to see hundreds of beautiful butterflies.
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, New York
A 52-acre garden in the centre of the busy city, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens are a stunning place to visit. In the spring, they showcase 200 blossoming cherry trees. It has a water garden, herb garden and rock garden within the whole gardens.
Mexico
Las Pozas, Mexico
Las Pozas gardens in Mexico is a sub-tropical, surrealist garden in the mountain rainforests. It features sculptures from surrealist artist Edward James. His group sculptures are towering structures interspersed by beautiful waterfalls. It’s one of the world’s most beautiful gardens.
Japan
Kenrokuen, Kanazawa
The Kenrokuen garden in Kanazawa is the city’s biggest attraction. It’s one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. It was once the outer garden of Kanazawa Castle. Each season brings a display of colourful beauty and the garden features streams, ponds, and waterfalls, stone lanterns, and historical tea houses.
UK
If you’re having a holiday at home, there are plenty of stunning gardens to visit here!
Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
In London, the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens aren’t just a beautiful garden. They’re also a leading research institution that employs hundreds of scientists. As well as showcasing countless species of plants, it also has historic buildings including the Palm House from the Victorian period.
The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall
As the name suggests, these gardens were completely forgotten for centuries, lost under dense undergrowth, before a door in one of the walls was discovered and unlocked the whole garden. Years of work went into restoring the area, discovering the old sculptures and designs and making it one of the most beautiful gardens in England.
There are thousands of stunning gardens all around the world waiting to be explored! If you’re going away this summer, why not see if you can take a trip to one!
