Trelissick Garden
Trelissick Garden is a National Trust estate of exceptional beauty occupying a prominent headland above the Fal Estuary near Truro in Cornwall, its gardens and woodland combining to create one of the finest garden landscapes on the Cornish coast. The mild, almost frost-free climate of the Fal Estuary creates conditions that allow an extraordinary range of subtropical and tender plants to thrive in the open garden, and the combination of these exotic plantings with the maritime setting and the views across the estuary water makes Trelissick genuinely unlike any other garden in Britain. The garden occupies a plateau above the estuary and wraps around the Edwardian house at its centre, descending in a series of terraced compartments and woodland clearings toward the water's edge. The plant collections reflect the Cornish garden tradition of collecting and displaying tender species from warm-temperate regions of the world that cannot be grown outdoors elsewhere in Britain. Clianthus from New Zealand, banksias from Australia, Echium from the Canary Islands and ancient magnolias from China and the Himalaya all contribute to a planting palette of exceptional diversity. The formal areas near the house include a particularly fine fig garden, the ornamental vegetable garden and borders designed for year-round interest using tender perennials that are moved under cover for winter. The woodland below contains a remarkable collection of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas that provide a spectacular display from January through May, when successive waves of colour move through the woodland as different species reach their peak. A network of circular walking routes extends through the garden's woodland and down to the estuary shore, where views across the water to the King Harry Ferry and the wooded far bank of the Fal provide one of the most peaceful and beautiful maritime landscapes in Cornwall. The King Harry Ferry, just downstream from the garden, provides a charming connection to the Roseland Peninsula and a route that avoids the long inland detour otherwise necessary to reach the eastern side of the estuary.