The Hampton Court Flower Show
A Garden Lovers Journey to England
With Wisconsin Public Radio’s Larry Meiller!
July 1- 9, 2012
“It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
WPR Supporters Save $150 When Booking Before May 1
Only a few spaces available, call today to secure your reservation!
Bring a sun hat (or maybe your wellies) and a wheelbarrow and join WPR’S Larry Meiller as the world’s biggest Flower Show returns to Hampton Court Palace in July. Organized by the Royal Horticultural Society on the grounds of the palace’s Home Park, the 2012 Show will have a vast section dedicated to international gardens. In addition, you’ll gain insider’s access to the secret gardens of London, enjoying visits to multiple private gardens. Stroll the grounds of grand historic gardens in Kent and visit Leeds Castle and Canterbury Cathedral. Space is limited, so hurry to join Wisconsin Public Radio’s very own Larry Meiller in London this summer.
JOURNEY OVERVIEW
3 Nights London
4 Nights County Kent
GARDENS
Eccleston Square Garden 
The Secret Gardens of London (an insider’s tour) Hampton Court 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
- WPR garden host Larry Meiller
- Expert garden guides throughout your journey
- Roundtrip air from Chicago
- Seven nights four star hotel accommodation
- All breakfasts plus nine additional multi-course meals
- Transport by air conditioned motor coach
- Airport transfers for those arriving/departing on the group flight
- Admission into all gardens listed above, including Hampton Court Flower Show
- Guided tours (where available) of all gardens by head gardener, gardener or owner
- Gratuities for your driver and guide
- A pre-tour informational gathering
- Services of professional tour manager throughout
TRIP FACTS
7 Nights/8 Days (land dates without air travel)
$3,450 PP Dbl. Occupancy land only
$675 single supplement (waived if you are willing to share and a match is found)
Trip begins in London on July 2, 2012
Trip ends on July 9
Prices based on an exchange rate of 1 GBP = 1.64 USD
Note: $250 small group comfort charge will be applied to groups of 14-20
GROUP AIR OPTION
British Airways, non-stop flights from/to Chicago O’Hare: $1,403.00 per person
Prices are round-trip and include airport transfers in London, estimated taxes, fuel surcharge and fees. Fuel is subject to change at time of ticketing.
Your Home Away From Home
Your 4 star hotel in London: K+K Hotel George
Your 4 star hotel in Kent Countryside: Hempstead House Hotel
WAYS TO SAVE $400
1. Book before May 1, and save $75
2. Pay your final balance by check and save $75 per person
2. WPR supporters save $75
3. Alumni of Earthbound or WPR adventures save $100
4. Refer a Friend and save an additional $75
“Despite the gardener’s best intentions, Nature will improvise.”
Michael P. Garafalo, gardendigest.com
YOUR GARDEN JOURNEY BEGINS…
DAY 1
Group Flight to London Departs from Chicago
DAY 2
Arrive in London
Upon arrival in the United Kingdom 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 three acres of garden with, amongst other things, peonies, ferns and a collection of climbing roses. Rose expert and author Roger Phillip created the garden and will act as your guide, along with master gardener Neville Cavil.
After your tour enjoy a lunch and orientation with your host Larry Meiller. Then check into your centrally located hotel in the afternoon and enjoy a relaxing independent evening in London. Sleep in London
DAY 3
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; historian Gillian Blachford and Janine Wookey, former editor of The English Garden magazine.
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 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 more than 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 late afternoon. Sleep in London
DAY 4
The Hampton Court Flower Show
Today spend an entire day exploring the grounds and exhibits of the Hampton Court Flower Show. Tickets and transport are included today. Enjoy! Sleep in London
About the Hampton Court Flower Show - Read More
DAY 5
South to County Kent via Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Our journey today continues with garden expert Anne de Verteuil as we depart London for Royal Tunbridge Wells. En route we’ll enjoy Sissinghurst Gardens. Here you’ll enter the world of influential gardener and writer Vita Sackville-West and her 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 outbuildings, 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 the private ownership of Viscount de L’Isle and have many small enclosed gardens with a delightful Elizabethan flavor. The garden includes new herbaceous borders and a rose garden. The Tudor house can also be visited.
Upon arrival at our hotel we’ll have an orientation of the town and enjoy dinner. Sleep in County Kent
DAY 6
Leeds Castle, Rock Farm Gardens and 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 are 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 a beautiful two acre 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 Tunbridge Wells in the late afternoon. Sleep in County Kent
DAY 7
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, and Ionic temple.
Next we are off to Bateman’s 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. Bateman’s is very much a family home, but impressive nonetheless.
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.
DAY 8
An excursion to Canterbury Cathedral and 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 at the alter and ever since, the Cathedral has attracted thousands of pilgrims, as told famously in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Today you’ll tour the cathedral and gardens before breaking for lunch.
This afternoon we visit Goodnestone Park. Set in 18th-century parkland the Palladian style house, built in 1702, has connections with Jane Austen, who stayed there. The wonderful gardens include a parterre, grass amphitheatre, mature woodland with walks, a new grass and gravel garden by plantsman Graham Gough and the pièce de résistance, a huge old walled garden romantically filled with old-fashioned roses, climbers, a rill, vegetable and cutting garden and a vista onto the neighboring Norman church.
Since this is our last night together, let’s enjoy a farewell feast and toast to our great garden adventure! Sleep in County Kent
DAY 9
Return home with a lifetime of memories…
After breakfast enjoy an included transfer to Heathrow airport for your journey back to Chicago.
About Your WPR Host: Larry Meiller
Larry would probably do well on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” He knows about geography, science, meteorology, the environment, travel and leisure activities, consumer issues, hunting, fishing, mountain biking, computers, home repair, gardening, cooking, medicine, and more. After hosting a public radio program for 34 years, he’s obviously picked up a lot of facts and figures.
For most of his workday, Larry teaches at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He advises about 100 undergraduate and several graduate students in the Department of Life Sciences Communication. He’s assistant dean for undergraduate academic student affairs in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and serves on several college and department committees.
But, he admits, the best part of his day is his 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. shift on the radio. “It’s a break in my day that gives me a chance to sit back, meet interesting people and talk about interesting topics.” Larry and his producer, Judith Siers-Poisson, tend to focus on environmental issues, consumer issues, and helpful “how-to” topics. “But I love to talk with Wisconsin authors,” Larry says, “and I really enjoy my food and gardening shows, too.” Like he sounds on the radio, Larry is a nice guy: outgoing, friendly, knowledgeable, and curious. You can’t see it, but you can hear that Larry enjoys his time on the radio. He’s attentive, involved, and quick with a laugh or anecdote. “After all these years, I still have fun with the show. And I still enjoy talking with our listeners.”
Your English Garden Hosts
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 - Read More
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 your 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 than 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 eurozone 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.”
