MAY 2012: CHELSEA GARDEN SHOW Great Gardens of England – SOLD OUT!

Chelsea Garden Tour

A Garden Lovers Journey to England and Paris
With horticulturist and writer Erica Glasener!
 May 19 - May 27, 2012

 “It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.”

- Robert Louis Stevenson -

 

Join Erica Glasener on the ultimate garden lovers journey to London. Gain insiders access to the secret gardens of London, enjoy visits to multiple private gardens. Stroll the grounds of grand historic gardens in Kent and visit the Chelsea Garden Show on members day! A post tour journey to the City of Light is available! Space is limited so hurry to join Erica in London this May.

 

JOURNEY OVERVIEW

3 Nights London
4 Nights Kent Countryside
3 Nights Post tour Paris 

 

JOURNEY HIGHLIGHTS

Eccleston Square Garden ♦ The Secret Gardens of London (an insiders tour) ♦ Chelsea Garden Show ♦ RHS Wisley Garden ♦ Penshurst Place Gardens ♦ The Great Dixter Garden ♦ Sissinghurst Gardens ♦ Leeds Castle and Gardens ♦ Canterbury Cathedral and Gardens ♦ Leeds Castle ♦ The Rock Farm Gardens ♦ Old Buckhurst ♦ Penns in the Rocks ♦ Batemans ♦ Goodnestone Park.

 

IT’S INCLUDED

• With garden host Erica Glasener
• Expert garden guides throughout your journey
• Seven nights hotel accommodation
• All breakfasts plus nine additional multi course meals
• Transport by air conditioned motor coach
• A one-year membership to the Royal Horticultural Society (one membership per household). The RHS will send you a monthly magazine and you will also be eligible to purchase seeds from the RHS directly
• Admission into all gardens listed above including Chelsea Flower Show on the Royal Horticultural Society member only day!
• Guided tours (where available) of all gardens listed above by head gardener, gardener or owner
• Services of experienced tour manager throughout
• A donation to the CarbonFund so you’ll travel carbon neutral

 

TRIP FACTS

8 Nights/9 Days (including air travel)
$3,995PP Dbl. Occupancy land and Air on Delta Airlines from Atlanta (20-28 guests)
$3,275 PP Dbl. Occupancy land only
$775 single supplement (waived if you are willing to share)
Group flight departs Atlanta on Saturday, May 19, 2012
Trip begins in London on Sunday, May 20
Trip returns on Sunday, May 27
Post tour dates: May 27-30
Prices based on an exchange rate of 1 GBP = 1.64600 USD

Note: Waitlisting Only!

 

WAYS TO SAVE!

Pay by check: Pay your final balance by check or money order and save $75 per person. 

Alumni Discounts: All alumni of Earthbound Expeditions will receive $100 off the published journey price (private trips may be excluded). If Earthbound Expeditions has other discounts available, participants may choose the greatest available discount.

Refer a Friend: Refer a friend and save an additional $75 for each person new to Earthbound who travels with you on an Earthbound Expedition. “Refer a Friend” discounts may be combined with other discounts.

  

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“Despite the gardener’s best intentions, Nature will improvise.”

- Michael P. Garafalo, gardendigest.com -

 

YOUR GARDEN JOURNEY BEGINS…

DAY 1
May 19: Group Flight to London Departs

 

DAY 2
May 20: Arrive in London
Upon arrival in Gatwick Airport you’ll be met by an Earthbound representative and transferred to the London city center. Once there you’ll enjoy a welcome brunch and then tour Eccleston Square garden. This lovely private garden is open to groups by appointment and never fails to delight visitors. It’s 3 acres of garden with, amongst other things, peonies, ferns, a collection of climbing roses and more. Rose expert and author Roger Phillip who created the garden will act as your guide along with master gardener Neville Cavil.

Check into your centrally located hotel in the afternoon and enjoy a relaxing independent evening in London. Sleep in London

 

DAY 3
May 21: The Secret Gardens of London
We set off this morning to discover the secret gardens of London. Joining us will be two expert resident guides; Janine Wookey, former editor of The English Garden and historian Gillian Blachford.

After a morning of exploration enjoy a delicious lunch and then set out by private motor coach for one of England’s most cherished gardens, the RHS Wisley Garden.

The Royal Horticultural Society was given to Wisley in 1903. At that time, only a small part of the 60-acre estate was actually cultivated as a garden, the remainder being wooded farmland. Today, the garden covers over 200 acres and offers visitors a fascinating blend of the beautiful with the practical. For many people, it is the beauty and tranquility of the garden that captures the imagination with its richly planted borders, luscious rose gardens and the exotica of the glasshouses.

Return to London in the later afternoon. Sleep in London

 

DAY 4
May 22: Chelsea Garden Show/ Members Only
Members of the Royal Horticultural Society may enter the Chelsea Garden show. And lucky you. Included in the price of your trip is a one year membership so you’ll be able to enjoy the show on one of the least crowded days. Tickets and transport are included today. Enjoy! Sleep in London 

 

DAY 5
May 23: South to Tunbridge Wells via Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Our journey today continues with garden expert Anne de Verteuil as we depart London for Royal Turnbridge Wells. En-route we’ll enjoy Sissinghurst gardens. Here, you’ll enter the world of influential gardener and writer Vita Sackville-West and husband Harold Nicholson. A disciplined framework of walls and hedges is filled out by wonderfully exuberant plantings of old roses, perennials and cottage garden flowers. The setting itself is wildly romantic, the remains of an Elizabethan mansion with twin towers and rambling, low out buildings, crumbly red-brick walls and open courtyards. The most famous of the many gardens is Vita’s innovative White Garden, a poetic composition of white and off-white flowers, set off by green, grey and blue-tinted foliage plants, such as ferns, artemisias, sea kale and grasses. It is soothing, cool and restrained. Sissinghurst is a pilgrimage for gardeners worldwide.

After, we’ll enjoy lunch and a tour of Penshurst Place Gardens. The 600-year-old gardens are still in private ownership of Viscount de L’Isle and has many small enclosed gardens with a delightful Elizabethan flavour. The garden includes a rose garden, 100ft-long peony border, which should be in full bloom in May, and new herbaceous borders. The Tudor house can also be visited.

In the afternoon we’ll make our way to you hotel in the country. Upon arrival we’ll enjoy an orientation of the town and dinner. Sleep in Kent Countryside.

 

DAY 6
May 24: Leeds Castle, Rock Farm Gardens & Old Buckhurst
Built in 1119 by Robert de Crèvecœur to replace the earlier Saxon manor of Esledes, Leeds castle became a royal palace in 1278 for King Edward I of England and his queen, Eleanor of Castile. Today the castle and grounds is considered one of the most beautiful in the world.

After our tour we proceed to Rock Farm. This delightful 18th century Kentish farmhouse is situated in a quiet and idyllic position on a fruit and arable farm, in an area of outstanding beauty. It has extensive views and is surrounded by two acres of beautiful garden, which has been designed and developed through the years by Sue Corfe.

Our day culminates with a visit to the garden at Old Buckhurst house. This garden was started by its present owners, John and Jane Gladstone, in January 1988 (just after the hurricane). At that time, there was no garden at all; just lawns, a mature oak, holly and paving around the house. Now the garden attracts admirers from all over the world.

Return to Royal Turnbridge Wells in the late afternoon. Sleep in Kent Countryside.

 

DAY 7
May 25: Penns in the Rocks, Batemans & The Gardens of Great Dixter
This morning enjoy a private visit to Penns in the Rocks. Owned by Lady Gibson, the 17th century home once belonged to William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. In a dramatic setting, surrounded by sandstone outcrops, the garden was in part laid out by Vita Sackville West (of Sissinghurst fame) in an axial arrangement of spaces around a walled garden. Includes perennial borders, an avenue of mulberries, an Ionic Temple.

Next we are off to Batemans House.

“That’s She! The Only She! Make an honest woman of her – quick!” was how Rudyard Kipling and his wife, Carrie, felt the first time they saw Bateman’s. Surrounded by the wooded landscape of the Sussex Weald, this 17th century house, with its mullioned windows and oak beams, provided a much-needed sanctuary for this world-famous writer. The rooms, described by him as “untouched and unfaked,” remain much as he left them, with oriental rugs and artifacts reflecting his strong association with the East. Batemans is very much a family home, but impressive none the less.

Enjoy lunch and then we are off for an afternoon visit and private tour of Great Dixter, home and garden of famed gardening writer and plantsman Christopher Lloyd. His garden follows the crisp design laid out by Sir Edwin Lutyens prior to the First World War. Yew hedging and flagstone paths divide the seven-acre garden into spaces of different character and purpose. Dynamic and bold planting is the garden’s theme, and most famous is the view down the Long Border, a richly planted sunny border filled with mixed annuals, perennials, bulbs, shrubs, small trees and climbing plants (particularly clematis) that perform with brilliant color over a long season. Return to Kent Countryside in the late afternoon.

 

DAY 8
May 26: An Excursion to Canterbury Cathedral & Gardens
The Cathedral’s history goes back to 597AD when St. Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great as a missionary, established his seat (or “Cathedra”) in Canterbury. In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the Cathedral, and ever since the Cathedral has attracted thousands of pilgrims, as told in Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales.  Today you’ll tour the cathedral and gardens before breaking for lunch.

This afternoon we visit Goodnestone Park. The Palladian style house, built in 1702, has connections with Jane Austen, who stayed there, and is set in 18th century parkland. The wonderful gardens include a parterre, grass amphitheatre, mature woodland with walks, a new grass and gravel garden by plantsman Graham Gough and the piece de resistance, a huge, old, walled garden romantically filled with old-fashioned roses, climbers, a rill, vegetable and cutting garden and a vista onto the neighbouring Norman church.

Since this is our last night together lets enjoy a farewell feast and toast to our great garden adventure!  Sleep in Kent Countryside

 

DAY 9
May 27: Return home with a lifetime of memories or… continue on to Paris!
After breakfast enjoy an included transfer to Heathrow airport. For those traveling on to Paris you will be escorted to the train station and then, in just a little over two hours, you will arrive in the heart of Paris.

 

 

 - Gardens and Itinerary Subject to Change -

 

POST-TOUR TO THE CITY OF LIGHT
$1095 Per Person Double Occupancy
$275 Single Supplement

INCLUDES

• Transfer to London train station
• Chunnel train tickets to Paris
• Transfer upon arrival in Paris
• Metro tickets in Paris
• Three nights superior (centrally located) 3-star hotel
• Breakfast daily
• Outing to Giverny (Monet’s Gardens)
• Two-day museum pass
• Airport transfer on the last day

 

ABOUT THE CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW
The Chelsea Flower Show is the gardening Mecca of Europe, where some of the greatest exponents of the art exhibit imaginative garden designs over an 11-acre site at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. They create a wonderland for the public to explore, as the tranquil canvas of the hospital’s lawns comes alive with a riot of color and form. Since its inception in 1913, the show has been at the forefront of horticultural development. In 2002, the entire event was housed in the dramatic, new-look of Great Marquees – higher, lighter, brighter and better ventilated than ever before.

Dozens of model gardens have always formed the prime attraction, reflecting the changing enthusiasms of designers, from the Japanese and topiary styles of the early days  to a major emphasis on rock gardens during the war years, to the paved backyards, cottage and wildflower gardens of the present day. The show continues a long tradition of pushing boundaries.

 

ABOUT YOUR HOST: ERICA GLASENER
Erica Glasener, Horticulturist and author, hosted “A Gardener’s Diary” on Home and Garden Television (HGTV) for fourteen years. In her role as host, she interviewed gardeners from all walks of life across the United States. Her curiosity about the impulse that drives people to garden, as well as her enthusiasm about plants, makes her a natural at facilitating the stories gardeners want to tell.

Living and gardening in Atlanta, Georgia, she wrote a biweekly column on plants and garden design for over ten years for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. She is the co-author with Walter Reeves of The Georgia Gardener’s Guide (revised edition published in 2004) and Month-By-Month Gardening in Georgia (revised edition published in 2006). Her most recent book Proven Plants Southern Gardens was published in December of 2009.

In her own garden, Erica grows vegetables, fruits (including blueberries), heirloom roses, bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees. She strives to have fresh flowers and foliage for bouquets to bring indoors or to take to friends throughout the year.

Erica has also served as a contributing editor for Fine Gardening, a Taunton Press publication. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Farmer’s Almanac and Atlanta Magazine.

 

RESIDENT GARDEN EXPERT: JANINE WOOKEY
Janine Wookey, formerly editor of The English Garden magazine, has used her extensive experience, to come up with a number of day-tours around National Gardens Scheme, gardens during the year that are a little bit different and will appeal to the garden visiting public.

 

 

RESIDENT GARDEN EXPERT: ANNE DE VERTEUIL
Anne de Verteuil is a garden designer and consultant with extensive experience working both private and public commissions. Based in London, her designs are primarily for urban spaces, ranging from city courtyard and roof terrace to a new university garden and planting for an urban park. Anne’s style is clean and contemporary. Her designs emphasize form and pattern, and structural planting is often used in a sculptural way. Surfaces and textures play an important part in the choice of hard and soft landscaping, and deciduous or ephemeral plants are always included to add softness and movement and mark the changing of the seasons.

 

 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW…

Deposit and Payment Schedule: A $500 deposit per person is required to reserve your journey. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for our refund policy. A separate deposit may be requested for the air portion of your journey. 

Not Included: Airline surcharges, taxes, baggage fees, alcoholic beverages with meals, meals not mentioned, room/mini-bar service, gratuities for hotel staff, travel insurance, items of a personal nature and activities not listed. 

Pricing: In the event that there are fewer than the minimum number of participants listed on the itinerary, a small group comfort charge will be offered to ensure the journey departs as scheduled. Former guests have greatly appreciated the benefits of traveling with a smaller group. Earthbound staff or hosts are not included in the number of tour participants. Please refer to the detailed itinerary for pricing information specific to each journey. 

Currency Fluctuations: The exchange rate on which the trip is based is listed on the itinerary under “Trip Facts” and was obtained through www.xe.com. Although no changes in the price of your trip are expected, Earthbound reserves the right to add a currency supplement or offer a refund due to unexpected currency fluctuations of plus or minus 5%. Seventy-five days prior to departure, rates will be reviewed and if necessary updated. Fluctuations greater then 5% will be noted in the final balance letter and invoice. Example: If the dollar falls against the Euro at a rate of 7%, a 2% surcharge will be added. In this case, Earthbound will absorb the initial 5% loss in the dollar. If the dollar gains against the Euro by 7%, a 2% reduction in price will be offered. NOTE: This policy pertains to euro zone countries (Russia, Western and Eastern Europe) only. 

Dress: In general, our guests feel most comfortable when dressed in a “casually smart” (not formal) way. We are often asked about jeans and Europeans of all ages do indeed wear them. None of the places we visit or dine require that women wear dresses or that men wear suit jackets or ties or any other special clothing. You’ll dine in casually elegant bistros that are not at all stuffy.

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