The Carbis Bay Hotel. Luxury hotel near St.Ives, Cornwall

Cornwall Gardens Holiday

Enjoy a relaxing luxury holiday at the award winning Carbis Bay Hotel, while visiting some of Cornwalls most enchanting gardens with experienced Garden's host Martin G Catford, M.I.Hart.,F.I.L.A.M.,D.H.W.(Hons).

The Garden: This 3-acre garden is low lying to the south of a 14-acre march. It surrounds an attractive white cottage complex and features a sizeable pond, streams, bog garden, extensive herbaceous beds, missed borders, woodland and small march. Created by the current owner from 1988 onwards when the first plantings were made, the garden can be considered a 'new edition' to the gardens of Cornwall. The main features are:

1. The Yard: A spacious gravel entrance drive shows off the initial plantings, such as Platanus hispanica ("London Plane"); Arbutus unedo ("Strawberry Tree"); Fagus sylvatica 'Atropurpurea' ("Copper Beach"); and Rosa 'Albertine'.

2. The Apple Tree Patch: Plants here include: Acer griseum ("Paperback Maple"); Sorbus sargentianal; Malus X zumi 'Golden Hornet' ("Golden Crab"); Cercis siliquastrum ("Judas Tree"); and Liriodendron tulipera ("Tulip Tree").

3. Sunken Garden: Plants here include: Salix babylonica ("Weeping Willow"); Rosa 'Wedding Day'; Pittosporum tobira ("Australian Laural / Tobria"); Buddleia salvifolia ("South African Sage Wood"); Paeonia delavayi ("Tree Peony").

4. Frying Pan: Paulownia tomentosa ("Foxglove Tree"); Tilia petriolaris ("Pendant Silver Lime" / "Weeping Silver Lime") ; Sequoia sempervirens ("Redwood" / "Coast Redwood" / "Californian Redwood"); Ginko biloba ("Maidenhair Tree").

5. Woodland: Taxodium Distichum ("Swamp Cypress"); Crinodendron patagua ("White Chile Lantern Tree"); Fraxinus 'Jaspidea' ("Yellow-Bark Ash" / "Golden Barked Ash"); Davida involuctra ("Dove Tree" / "Ghost Tree" / "Pocket Handkerchief Tree"); Poncorus trifoliate ("Hardy orange"); Aesculus flava ("Sweet Buckeye" / "Yellow Buckeye").

6. Railway Border: Cornus kousa 'Chinesis' ("Chinese Dogwood"); Aesculus parviflora ("Shrubby Pavia" / "Dwarf Buckeye" / "Red Buckeye"); magnolia campbellii 'Mollicomata' ("Pink Tulip-Flower Tree"); Catalpa bignobioides 'Aurea' ("Golden Indian Bean Tree"); Osmanthus X burkwoodii ("Fragrant Olive").

7. Pit Border: Taxodium distichum ("Swamp Cyprus"); Eucryphia nymansensis 'Nymansay' ("Brush Bush"); Cornus 'Norman Haddon'; Cornus 'Eddies White Wonder' - both forms of ("Dogwood"); Kirengeshoma palmatum [Saxifragaceae] - an unusual herbaceous plant with leaves like a Japanese Anenome.
8. Square Garden: Catalpa X erubescens (hybrid "Catalpa"); Clerodendron bungei; Vibrunum X burkwoodii 'Anne Russell'; Prunus 'Tai-haku' ("Great White Cherry"); and various herbaceous plantings.

9. Big Boscage: Cornus capitata ("Bentham's Cornell")l Hippophae rhamnoides ("Sea Buckthorn"); Plantus F. Digitrata ("Plane"); Robinia psuedoacacia 'Bessoniana' ("False Acacia" / "Locust"); Betula ("Birch"); Populus ("Poplar"); and Larix ("Larch").

10. Lawn: Tilia ("Lime"); Alnus ("Alder"); Populus ("Poplar"); an Herbaceous Border and a Grass Border.

11. Brookand's Bank: Magnolia X leobneria 'Merrill'; Acer rufinerve ("Snakebark Maple" / "Grey-Budded Snakebark Maple"); Clerodendron trichotomum fargesii ("Glory Tree"); Hoheria sexstylosa ("Lace Bark" / "Biddonwood"); Parrotia persica ("Iron Tree" / "Ironwood").

12. Gran's Patch / Shelter Patch: Azara microphylla; Populus balsamifera X berolinensis ("Balsam Poplar" / "Tacamahac"); Fraxinus 'Raywood' ("Ash"); Viburnum plicatum 'Lanarth' ("Japanese Snowball").

13. Pond Garden: This is a large natural pond with several connecting waterways which drain to Treesmill March - formerly part of the original march. It contains the following: Pterostyrax hispida ("Asgara"); Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer' ("Ornamental Flowering Pear"), Acer rubrum 'October Glory' ("Red Maple"); Betula jacquemontii ("White Barked Himalayan Birch"), and Viburnum rhytidphyllum.

14. Bog Garden: Betula costata ("Birch"); Betula papyrifera ("Paper Birch" / "Canoe Birch"); Salix babylonica 'Tortuosa' ("Corkscrew Willow" / "Contorted Willow"); Gunnera manicata ("Chilean Rhubarb").

Enjoy both the seriousness and the humour within the garden - you'll find out what we mean!