Trentham Gardens

the most wonderful, picaresque and quiet place I have ever been! its great for a picnic !!!!!
a lovely back ground story as well!!!!

(5.0/5)

What a feast for the senses this garden is! With areas designed by both my heros in Garden Design Piet Oudolf and Tom Stewart Smith.

The bridge across the river into the garden is beautiful and sculptural leading into Piet Oudolf's flowing planting and meandering paths is a very relaxing experience which is only slightly spoiled by some rather inspiring sculpture.
Tom Stewart Smith has used the original layout of the historic gardens and brought them bang up to date with some beautiful perennial planting.
I visited in early June and the bulbs were still giving a good show. Load of tulips and add greatly to the spring look of a garden and are a good way of ensuring your garden looks as good in spring as it does in summer.

There were a few rather sad looking show gardens as well, one with a really badly built pond - hopefully this will get fixed soon. The cafe was really nice with great views of the gardens and the lake. There was plenty for children to enjoy and a barefoot walk which was great fun, a hide to watch birds on the lake and plenty of places to but ice-cream if you need a bribe. You could pay extra to go and visits some animals too.
I can really recommend this garden and would love to go back through all the seasons.

(4.0/5)

A short stint of house and chicken sitting for friends in sunny Shropshire allowed me ample time to pad round some glorious gardens (including The Dorothy Clive garden and Wollerton Old Hall) in the environs. The last one was Trentham Gardens a huge estate with some spectacular gardens. Think mature meets modern. I visited in the winter last year and was breath taken by Tom Stuart Smith's Italian Garden borders so felt a summer visit to see it all in it's full glory was both appropriate and frankly a must do whilst staying less than an hour away!

It was heaving with families and kids, HEAVING. I headed along the Trent beside the frothing grass paths and sculpture.

Coming upon the Piet Oudolf borders is a delight they tantalise along the river path inviting you to explore the wide paths and deep, blocky planting. Somehow there is something much more satisfying about big blocks of plants, not 3's, 5's 8's per Fibonacci but 34's, 55's and 89's (also Fibonacci's but bigger :) )

Swathes of Echinacea, White Swan and purpurea and probably several other so (no plant list :( ), Eupatorium purpureum, Solidago, Achillea, all colours and sizes, bluest Salvias, stands of Monada's, and pink/purple Liatris amongst them and then, of course with blocks of grasses to form backdrops and punctuations in the floriferous groups.

see more.....http://thestudentgardendesigner.blogspot.com/2010/08/glorious-shropshire-summer-days.html

(4.0/5)

Visited Trentham Gardens yesterday, and enjoyed every minute. The Gardens are fantastic, the food was good and shopping reasonably priced with plenty of excellent choice. The staff from restaurants to shops were pleasant and helpful., and the toilet facilities were exceptionally clean. All in all, a great day out!

(5.0/5)

The gardens are, quite frankly, the best that I have seen in the U.K. and the volunteer staff that I spoke to are second to none. Congratulations to all concerned!

(5.0/5)