The Journey
Southern England has long been a source of inspiration for gardeners, designers and plant lovers around the world. Across twelve days we move through landscapes that have shaped generations of horticultural thinking, from intimate private gardens to some of Britain's most celebrated estates.
Alongside Richard are two extraordinary collaborators. Floral artist Saskia Havekes invites us to see flowers differently through intimate workshops using material gathered from the gardens we visit. Naturopath and herbalist Anthia Koullouros shares her lifelong understanding of medicinal plants, seasonal nourishment and the quiet relationship between gardens and wellbeing.
Together this is far more than a garden tour. It is an opportunity to immerse yourself in beauty, creativity and the restorative power of nature while travelling with a small group of like-minded people.
“I’m thrilled to be joined by these two remarkable women, to journey together and share their wealth of knowledge and life experience with us”.
Richard Unsworth
Journey with
Saskia Havekes
Founder, Grandiflora
Saskia founded Grandiflora in 1995, opening a small shop in Sydney's Potts Point that has grown into one of Australia's most recognised floral studios. Known for a sculptural, considered approach to flowers, she has created work for fashion houses, editorial shoots and events worldwide, including a bouquet for Princess Diana.
Saskia is the author of four books on floristry and, in 2013, launched her own line of fragrances, Grandiflora Fragrances, in Paris. On this journey she leads two private workshops using material foraged from the gardens along the way.
Anthia Koullouros
Founder, Apotheca By Anthia
Anthia has practised as a clinical naturopath and herbalist since 1994, drawing on more than thirty years of clinical experience. She founded Ovvio, a Paddington apothecary and naturopathic clinic, before launching Apotheca by Anthia in 2020 alongside her online education platform, Akademeia.
Anthia is the author of I Am Food and takes a whole person approach to healing, drawing on herbal medicine, nutrition and her own Greek Cypriot heritage. On this journey she shares the fundamentals of healing with plants.
Itinerary
Day 1
Arrival
The tour opens at The Grove, Watford, a grand country estate hotel on the edge of London, our base for the first night before the journey begins in earnest.
Days 2, 3 & 4
The Cotswolds
Our journey begins at Serge Hill Gardens in Hertfordshire, home to the multi award winning Chelsea gold medallist Tom Stuart Smith. Here he has spent decades shaping The Barn, his experimental home garden known for its naturalistic planting and Corten steel detailing. Nearby, the Serge Hill Project, run together with his wife Sue, brings a community garden and a plant library of some 1,500 varieties to life. We also visit the enchanting garden kept by Tom's sister at their childhood home, before continuing into the Cotswolds.
Rousham will be our next destination, one of England's least altered and most influential landscape gardens, designed by William Kent in the 1730s. A sequence of temples, cascades and statuary leads through Venus's Vale and the Cold Bath, alongside walled herbaceous borders, a parterre and espalier apple trees. The house itself retains its original seventeenth century panelling and staircases and remains refreshingly unspoilt and uncommercialised.
Nearby is Rockcliffe, a private garden in the heart of the Cotswolds that garden designer Emma Keswick has shaped into eight acres of chic English style since 1981. Highlights include topiarised beech obelisks, whimsical yew doves leading to a Cotswold stone dovecote, a colour themed potager and a Nigel Hall bronze sculpture framing views across the ha-ha.
Few gardens have influenced contemporary horticulture as profoundly as Highgrove. Developed over four decades by King Charles III, it is an extraordinary expression of organic principles and personal passion, from the fern filled Stumpery to a walled kitchen garden, wildflower meadows and the Thyme Walk. Head Gardener Melissa Simpson now leads the team, championing sustainability across this celebrated royal garden. Afterwards we enjoy time exploring the charming market town of Tetbury.
Three nights follow at Thyme, a village within a village in the Cotswolds, where seventeenth century stone cottages, barns and a manor house have been lovingly restored across one hundred and fifty acres. Guests enjoy the Ox Barn restaurant, the Meadow Spa and a two-acre kitchen garden that supplies the estate's nature to plate dining, all wrapped in understated country charm.
Days 5, 6 & 7
Somerset
Iford Manor is next, home to the Grade I listed Peto Garden, crafted by the Edwardian architect Harold Peto, who lived here from 1899 to 1933. Italianate terraces, cloisters and antique statuary cascade down a secluded valley beside the River Frome. Head Gardener Troy Scott-Smith, formerly of Sissinghurst, now tends this romantic garden for the Cartwright-Hignett family, before we dine at The Newt in Somerset.
A free day follows, with the option to join a private floristry workshop with Saskia.
Contemporary art meets Piet Oudolf's celebrated Oudolf Field at Hauser and Wirth Somerset, a naturalistic planting of some 26,000 herbaceous perennials woven across one and a half acres of curving, interlocking beds. Head Gardener Mark Dumbleton tends this internationally acclaimed garden, which rewards a visit in any season, from its spring emergence to the frosted seed heads of winter.
We will spend three nights at The Newt in Somerset, voted the best boutique hotel in the world and known for the smallest of details, with food and hospitality of the highest order. For the nature lover, walled gardens shaped by two centuries of horticultural vision unfold from Victorian grandeur to contemporary flair, alongside the Parabola's apple maze, Roman Britain at Villa Ventorum and the secret life of bees, all set within a working country estate, luxury hotel and celebrated cyder cellar.
Days 8 & 9
South Downs
On day eight we travel to Mottisfont, once a medieval Augustinian priory and later a country home, which passed to the National Trust in 1957. Its walled garden now holds Graham Stuart Thomas's world-famous National Collection of old-fashioned roses, more than five hundred varieties in all. Visiting in June brings this once-a-year spectacle to its fragrant, romantic best.
Knepp has become one of Europe's most influential rewilding projects. Once an unprofitable farm, the estate has been transformed since 2001 by its owners Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree, with free roaming cattle, ponies and pigs restoring a thriving mosaic of habitats that has brought back rare nightingales and purple emperor butterflies. We join a guided wildlife safari through this remarkable landscape, offering a completely different perspective on gardening and our relationship with the natural world.
Two nights follow at The Pig, South Downs, a Georgian house near Arundel that champions plot to plate living amid a two-acre walled garden and its own vineyard. Guests enjoy kitchen garden tours, apple orchards, hens, a Victorian glasshouse and Potting Shed treatments, all rooted in the West Sussex countryside and its proudly local, twenty-five-mile menu.
Days 10 & 11
Kent
Great Dixter remains one of the world's most influential gardens, celebrated for the fearless, experimental planting of its longtime owner, the gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd. Since 1993, Head Gardener Fergus Garrett has carried that spirit forward, nurturing exceptional biodiversity, with more than two thousand recorded species, across this exuberant and ever evolving garden.
From here the road leads to Sissinghurst Castle Garden, the lifelong sanctuary of the writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West. Her exuberant planting, paired with her husband Harold Nicolson's formal design, created one of the twentieth century's most influential gardens. Ten garden rooms, including the famed White Garden and Rose Garden, showcase England's finest collection of old garden roses.
Prospect Cottage follows, the shingle beach garden created by the late Derek Jarman at Dungeness, where driftwood sculptures, flint circles and salt tolerant wildflowers blend into a boundaryless landscape that merges with the horizon. Saved for the nation in 2020, it is now cared for by Creative Folkestone, with gardener Jonny Bruce preserving Jarman's poetic and defiantly wild vision. Afterwards we enjoy a private floristry workshop.
Two nights are spent at Boys Hall, a Grade II listed Jacobean manor near Ashford that blends four hundred years of history with three acres of garden, including rose beds, an orchard, a kitchen garden and beehives producing the hotel's own honey. Wildflower planting encourages biodiversity, while the replanting of native Kentish trees reflects a genuine commitment to sustainability across the estate.
Day 12
Departure
A final drive to London brings the tour to a close, with departure and drop offs to follow.
Curated Stays
Each property has been chosen for its character, craftsmanship and sense of place.
The Grove, Watford
1 night
A grand country estate hotel on the edge of London, an easy first night before the tour begins.
Thyme, Southrop
3 nights
A village within a village in the Cotswolds, where restored stone cottages, barns and a manor house sit across one hundred and fifty acres, with the Ox Barn restaurant, Meadow Spa and a two-acre kitchen garden.
The Newt in Somerset
3 nights
Voted the best boutique hotel in the world, a working farm and estate celebrated for its walled gardens, apple maze, cyder press and considered hospitality.
The Pig, South Downs
2 nights
A relaxed Georgian country house near Arundel with a strong plot to plate focus, its own vineyard and a proudly local, twenty-five-mile menu.
Boys Hall, Kent
2 nights
A Grade II listed Jacobean manor near Ashford, our base for the final days of the tour, with rose beds, an orchard and its own honey.
The Details
Guides
Richard Unsworth, with Saskia Havekes (Grandiflora) and Anthia Koullouros (Apotheca by Anthia)
Locations
Watford, the Cotswolds, Somerset, South Downs, Kent
Dates
9 to 20 June 2027
Duration
11 nights, 12 days
Group size
16 max.
Estimated cost
$24,000 twin sharing
Single supplement $8,000
Inclusions
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All accommodation as per itinerary
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All meals and soft drinks
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Garden entry to all gardens
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Two private floristry workshops with Saskia Havekes
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Two wellbeing workshops with Anthia Koullouros
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Transport from Day 1 to Day 12, returning to London for the group drop-off
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The company and expertise of Saskia Havekes for half the tour (exact dates to be confirmed)
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The company and expertise of Anthia Koullouros for half the tour (exact dates to be confirmed)
Exclusions
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Alcohol
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Spa treatments and miscellaneous purchases
Please note that itineraries and gardens may vary slightly from those published, and entry cannot be guaranteed at the time of writing. We reserve the right to amend accommodation, if necessary, due to unforeseen circumstances. Maximum group size sixteen.
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