Paradise Park, Avis Road, Newhaven, BN9 0DH
24 hour information 01273 616006 – Telephone Number: 01273 512123 – www.paradisepark.co.uk
‘The Garden & Gift Centre displays a vast range of inspiring ideas for home and garden. Our large plant area displays many nursery fresh plants grown from our own nurseries. Relax in the Terrace Cafe overlooking the gardens. The Cafe offer delicious meals and snacks made on the premises. The delightful gardens are Newhaven’s hidden secret with several small lakes, waterfalls and founstains that make one of the finest water gardens in Sussex. The ponds contain thousands of fish that you can feed during the dpring and summer. The gardens are a mixture of formal and informal in a wide variety of styles. The paths are designed for easy access for the disables and elderly. Pause for reflection at numerous seating points. Climb Tyrannosaurus Towers for an exhilarating slide for 6 to 12 years old. Enjoy the indoor play area, crammed with brighly coloured tubes, balls, tunnels and slide. There is also a soft play area for under 5’s. A miniature railway caries passengers around the gardens. A round of nine hole crazy golf course offers a fun challenge for all the family.
Bentley Country Park, Halland, East Sussex, BN8 5AF
Telephone 01825 840573 www.bentley.org.uk
Deep in the heart of the Sussex countryside, Bentley Country Park is a truly amazing experience for the whole family. Steeped in history, the estate is centred around a former traditional Sussex farmhouse converted by leading classical architect Raymond Erith into a Palladan mansion, which is open to visitors. There are formal gardens and tranquil woodland trails to explore, which include reconstructions of buildings from the Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Saxon periods. Visitors to Bentley an enjoy lunch, coffee or afternoon tea at The Bentley Kitchens without paying to enter the estate. Our star atraction is the wildfowl reserve covering 40 hectares of the estate. With around 2500 birds representing 130 species from around the world, plus visiting itinerants, it is the most diverse private collection in Europe.
Sussex Prairies Garden, Wheatsheaf Road (B2116 road), Near Henfield, West Sussex, BN5 9AT
Telephone 01273 495902 www.sussexprairies.co.uk
Sussex Prairies is an exciting new garden where Paul and Pauline McBride have followed their dream to design and create a beautiful garden in the heart of the Sussex Weald. Enveloped by mature oak trees and bordered by the curvacuous South Downs, this extraordinary garden features hugh borders of sumptuous planting combinations that inspire and immerse you in an ever wave of texture, colour and form. Sussex Prairies offers you eight acres of lovely planted prairie garden containing over 30,000 plants of over 800 different varieties. A haven for butterflies, birds and insects with constant colour and interest from June through to October. Delicious home baking served in our teashop and a terrace overlooking the garden. Guided tours available for groups of 10 people or more. Wondeful plants propagated from the garden and cut flowers for sale. rare breed Shetland Sheep and pigs living in the oak woodland.
Borde Hill Garden, Borde Hill Lane, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 1XP
Telephone 01444 450326 www.bordehill.co.uk
Borde Hill has a natural head start, covering 200 acres, and set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The formal part of the Garden extends to over 17 acres. Designed as a series of outdoor rooms each with its own distinctive character, colour and scent, including the popular Rose garden and Italian garden. The historic Garden is constantly evolving with new plantings and designs. Not surprising Borde Hill is an award winning garden including Historic Houses Association ‘Garden of the Year’. For plant lovers, Springtimes magficient displays of early flowering magnolias and camelias, rhododendrons and azaleas are a sight to behold. Summers warmth brings out the glorious fragrances of hundreds of roses and the colourful blooms in the herbaceous borders. Autumn transforms the colours of the many mature and unusual trees in the Grade II listed landscape. The Garden provides many opportunities to simply sit in peaceful contemplation. Our Adventure Playground has one of the longest zip wires in Sussex and plenty to occupy younger energetic children. Warren Wood and Stephanies Glade come alive in the spring with hugh flowering rhododendrons overhanging carpets of bluebells and wood anemones. The woodland and parkland contain numerous rare and exotic trees. (the uneven terrain is unsuitable for wheelchairs) Our gift shop offers a wide selection of gifts, local crafts, plant sales and pottery. Breakfast, morning coffee, freshley baked pastries amd cakes, homemade plat du joir and healthly menus are available along with cream teas in the Cafe Elvira.
Great Dixter House, Gardens & Nurseries
Telephone 01797 252878 www.greatdixter.co.uk
Great Dixter was the family home of Christopher Lloyd, who devoted his lifetime to creating one of the most experimental, exciting and constantly changing gardens of our time. Incorporating many medieval buildings, the gardens surround the house, each complementing the other.
There is a wide variety of interest from yew topiary, carpets of meadow flowers, the colourful tapestry of mixed borders, natural ponds and exhuberant exotic garden, all contributing to an extraordinarily rich. biodiversity. Visit Great Dixter house with its 15th century rooms and fine furniture. The medieval Great Barn is open too, alongside a Victorian oast with a history of the garden on display. The White Barn has displays about the house and the Lloyd family and a short film. Great Dixter nurseries offer a quality service of direct and mail order sales. Most of the plants are raised by the nursery and many can be seen in the fabric of the gardens. Our shop offers a selection of high quality tools and sundries. Light refreshments, hot and cold drinks, ice creams are available all day. A unique range of handmade wooden products from our own wood or locally sourced timber are on sale.
PASHLEY MANOR GARDENS, TICEHURST, EAST SUSSEX, TN5 7HE
Telephone: 01580 200888 www.pashleymanorgardens.com
The award winning gardens offer a sumptous blend of romantic landscaping, imaginative plantings and fine old trees, fountains, springs and large ponds, with exceptional views over the surrounding countryside. Whatever month you visit there is something to delight the senses. Throughout April and May bluebells, wisteria and thousands of tulips abound. June is fragrant with roses and lavender; July with sweet peas and lillies. Summer bedding plants continue through into August, followd by many late flowering herbaceous perennials. As well as coming to see the beautiful gardens allow time to sample the fabulous homemade food and warm hospitality at arguably the best garden cafe in the county, much of which is sourced from the abundent kitchen garden. The gardens provide the perfect setting for sculpture. Each year the works of many eminent sculptors are shown, including pieces by local artists, ranging in style from abstract to engagingly figurative.