Time Off - local garden visits Gardens to visit in Devon


Spring is on its way and it’s time to get out and about to see the colour emerging. We advise readers to make contact before embarking on a long journey.


Little Cumbre, Exeter


An early spring garden, Little Cumbre is awash with bulbs, hellebores and camellias


An early spring garden, Little Cumbre is awash with bulbs, hellebores and camellias yet the one-acre site is only a mile north of the city centre. There is one more opening for the NGS, on Sunday 20th February, so catch the spring flowers if you


can, although the garden and woodland is also open to visitors by appointment. Keep a date for next year’s, as the garden will re-open for the NGS on Sundays 5th, 12th and 19th February 2012.


Location: Little Cumbre, 145 Pennsylvania Road, Exeter EX4 6DS. Telephone 01392 258315. Has opened for the NGS on dates in January and February, and the last date for 2011 is Sunday 20th February, from 12 noon until 3.30pm. Admission £3.50, children free. Plants for sale. Limited wheelchair access. No dogs allowed.


The Downes, Bideford


The Downes is the product of three generations of gardeners, all who had an eye for landscape as well as rare plants


Re-opening for the Yellow Book, this graceful garden between Bideford and Torrington will delight visitors, with its sloping lawns and wealth of spring colour in the flowering shrubs


underplanted with bulbs. With landscaped lawns, woodland walks and fine views overlooking the countryside in Torridge


There are 120 varieties of magnolias at Sherwood that will keep visitors spellbound


Valley. The Downes is the product of three generations of gardeners who had an eye for landscape and rare plants. There is a wide variety of trees and shrubs in the walks and the arboretum. Owners Mr and Mrs Richard Stanley-Baker open the garden daily from mid-March until mid-May. Different vistas open up during a visit, and close up it is possible to identify cornus kousa, many varieties of acer and silver birch, sorbus mitchelli, ailanthus, halesia, liquidambar, embothrium, davidia and thujopsis dolabrata.


The Downes, Bideford, Devon EX39 5LB. Telephone: 07782 145337/ 01237 47551. Email: rsb@usa.net/glenturret@gmail.com


Open for the NGS: daily from Monday 14th March to Sunday 15th May, from 10am – 4.30pm. Visitors are also welcome by appointment, but not coaches. Admission: £3.50, children free. Plants for sale, and dogs are allowed on short leads.


Sherwood, Newton St. Cyres


A spectacular garden of 15 acres over two steep wooded valleys, Sherwood is a remote place yet only six miles from Exeter. It was originally laid out before World War I but has been considerably enlarged. Yet there’s lots more, from the wild flowers, particularly daffodils, the extensive collections of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas, berberis, heathers,


maples, cotoneaster and later on the buddleias, hydrangeas and the flowers of the late summer perennials, with plants clearly labelled. The garden, owned by Prue Quicke, is on Culm Measure acid clay and is surrounded by 1,200 acres of woodland – a wonderful location.


Sherwood, Newton St. Cyres, Exeter EX5 5BT. Telephone: 01392 851216. Email: prue@sherwoodgarden.eclipse.co.uk Open for the NGS: Sundays 2nd January until 26th June; Sundays 4th September to 26th February 2012. Admission: £4, children free (share to Newton St Cyres parish church). Plants for sale. Dogs allowed on short leads.


Special interest heritage and garden holidays in the UK and Europe 0845 1212863 www.brooklandtravel.com


Country Gardener 43


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