Country garden awards: see the historic gardens nominated and how to vote

Traditional country house gardens across the UK are competing to win the prestigious Historic Houses Country Garden of the Year award.

Running since 1984, the annual contest recognises the importance of Britain’s most spectacular gardens with outstanding horticultural and public appeal.

Run by heritage preservation organisation, Historic Houses, this year’s competition features eight nominees from across the UK. Each country garden is competing to collect as many public votes as possible before the 30th September deadline.

Ursula Cholmeley, gardening editor of Historic House magazine, said:“Our great country houses are rightly protected from much significant physical change, so it’s often only in the garden that a new generation of inhabitants of these much-loved family homes can really make their mark, leaving their own legacy for future generations.”

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Country gardens nominated in Historic Houses Garden of the Year 2019 Awards

The ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland, the Castle’s formal gardens are studded with classical statues and scattered with water features. The Duchess’ Spring Garden is fed by underground springs so that plants bloom all year round and the lush woodland is home to many species of beautiful trees.

First occupied by John De Cambo who received it as a Norman land grant from the king in the 12^thor 13^thcentury, Cambo is currently home to the Erskine family since the 1670s and features a 2.5 acre walled garden dating back to the 1800s. The garden is particularly famous for its Plant Heritage national collection of snowdrops in its 70-acre woodland.

The Cholomondley family have lived on these lands since the Norman times, with the castle built in the early 19^thcentury by the first Marquess. Nestled within historic parkland the 70-acre garden features a romantic Temple, Water Gardens Arboretum and the newly created Lavinia Walk, a 100m long double herbaceous border.

A former Cistercian monastery, the gardens of Forde Abbey are home to the highest-powered fountain in the country. They include topiary lined vistas, colourful herbaceous borders, an arboretum, a bog garden, which together with swathes of early Spring bulbs and camellias provide all-year-round interest.

Once home to renowned gardening writer Christopher Lloyd, the gardens at Great Dixter fuelled over 40 years of books and articles. They feature a topiary lawn, several moats, a horse pond and a peacock garden.

The Kiftsgate Court gardens are the creation of three generations of women gardeners since the start of the twentieth century and contain a sunk garden, rose border and bluebell wood.

Designed by Cristopher Wren and built between 1691 and 1695, Newby Hall is home to the Compton Family. Its gardens feature a lush herbaceous border, tropical garden and national cornus collection.

The Plas Cadnant gardens comprise of three different recently restored hidden gardens: a walled garden with curving walls and a pool, a secret valley garden with three waterfalls and ariver, and an upper woodland garden with stone outcrops and the remains of a 19^thcentury folly.

How to vote

Entries close on 30^thSeptember 2019. The winner will be announced in early November.

Vote for your favourite country garden by visiting: www.historichouses.org/goya2019