Blenheim Palace to mark National Garden Week with displays

The Oxfordshire estate is celebrating the return of spring and summer with a host of horticultural highlights and new planting schemes, from April 27 to May 3.

Visitors can enjoy a refreshed Secret Garden filled with hellebores, epimediums, and rhododendrons.

A new ‘stump garden’ walk adds a bold, spiky touch with birch trees, ferns, and sculptural stumps.

Andy Mills, head gardener at Blenheim Palace, said: “Across the gardens, we’re focused on creating spaces that evolve beautifully through the seasons whilst offering something new and memorable for our visitors each year.

“From the early spring planting in the Secret Garden to the bold structural changes, this year is about building layers of interest, biodiversity, and experience.

“National Gardening Week is a wonderful moment to celebrate the work of our team and to inspire visitors with ideas they can take home to their own gardens.”

Other highlights include fresh drifts of spring bulbs across the grounds, new tree planting in the Arboretum, and red-stemmed willows by the riverbanks.

A recently planted avenue of ornamental crab apples leads from the Rose Garden to the Temple of Flora, dedicated to the goddess of spring and flowers.

All three garden ‘temples’ – Diana, Health, and Flora – are now open to visitors, allowing visitors to step inside, sit, and take in the panoramic views from each vantage point.

In the Walled Garden, 40 new fruit trees have been added, including heritage varieties such as Bloody Ploughman and Belle de Boskoop.