Gardens to visit in the Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly are like an idealised version of England – where the sun always shines, the food is wonderful, there’s no traffic and no one locks their doors! To say the sun always shines is an exaggeration, but they’re among the sunniest and mildest places in the UK – sea breezes mean it’s never too hot or humid and thanks to the Jetstream, they almost never have frost.

This microclimate has enabled the creation of a very special subtropical garden – the Abbey Garden on the island of Tresco. My husband and I were lucky enough to spend a few days on the Isles of Scilly and took a tour of the garden with curator Mike Nelhams. This gloriously exotic 17-acre attraction is home to 20,000 species of plant, gathered from all over the globe. The mild winters mean Mediterranean and subtropical plants that wouldn’t survive in the rest of the UK, unless they were grown under glass, can thrive here. There are towering palm trees and tree ferns, sculptural succulents, and vibrant flowers from the New Zealand flame tree, proteas, echiums, bird of paradise plants and many more. We visited in September and I had assumed that would be peak flowering season for many of these southern-hemisphere plants. However, they have largely adapted to their new location and now flower in our spring and summer, making May the most flower-filled month in the garden.

The plant collection is truly international – from as far afield as Brazil, California, South Africa, Myanmar, New Zealand and more, all growing happily together. It’s also a lovely place for a relaxing stroll, as the gardens are far more than just a plant collection and are beautifully laid out with lots of inviting paths and vistas. You can also buy plants and seeds from the garden