A great woodland garden, inspired by the planting ideas of Sir Uvedale Price, Richard Payne Knight and JC Loudon. Exotic plants are used a 'picturesque' manner, derived from landscape painting. Sir Edmund Loder bought the estate in 1889 and imported the herd of Wallabies which still lives here. The Leonardslee Gardens lie in a sheltered valley with a string of ponds, made a century earlier to provide waterpower for the iron industry. Being damp and slightly acid, the soil is well-suited to rhododendrons, camelias and magnolias. Loder gave his name to the famous hybrid Rhododendron 'Loderi'. Like him, one can walk through the garden imagining onself to be in a misty Himalayan valley, for travel and adventure. The gardens closed to the public in 2010 and are set to re-open in 2019.
