Gardens in Norfolk
Published on
by Keys Holidays Cottages
Spring is the time when flowers and shrubs burst forth, and there is no better time to visit some of Norfolk’s fine gardens. We love to experience the work of our county’s green-fingered experts, from intimate cottage gardens to grandiose formal gardens in stately homes.
Here are a few of our favourite gardens to visit. Some are only open on selected dates, others can be visited all year round.
- Table of contents
- Stody Lodge Gardens
- East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden
- Blickling Hall
- Fairhaven Water Gardens
- Holkham Hall
- Plantation Garden
- Sheringham Park
- Gooderstone Water Gardens
- Sandringham
- Priory Maze Gardens
Stody Lodge Gardens
Originally part of the nearby Blickling Estate, the original Stody Lodge has been the home of a succession of keen gardeners, culminating in Ian and Adel MacNichol, who have created a wonderful garden.
Today this includes the Azalea Water Gardens, the largest single expanse of azalea mollis in the UK, many different species of rhododendron, a formal rose garden, a woodland garden, a sunken garden, a secret garden, herbaceous borders, sweeping lawns, and many ornamental trees.
The gardens are open to the public during a series of open days in May, with teas provided on many of those days by local charities. Private group visits can also be arranged for a minimum of six people.
Image: Bryn Ditheridge
Find out moreEast Ruston Old Vicarage Garden
Created as a labour of love by Alan Gray and Graham Robeson over more than 50 years, East Ruston Vicarage Garden is today a beautiful 32 acre modern garden containing many ‘rooms’ with herbaceous borders, gravel gardens, sub-tropical gardens, a box parterre, a sunken rose garden, a Mediterranean garden, a Desert Wash and a large woodland garden.
The latest addition was a walled garden built to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. East Ruston was named one of the 50 best gardens in Europe by The Independent in 2023.
The gardens are open from Wednesday to Sunday and on bank holidays, from 1st March to 31st October, from 12pm-5.30pm. There is also a programme of special events and guided tours throughout the year.
Find out moreBlickling Hall
Famous for being the home of King Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn, Blickling Hall is a fine Jacobean stately home set in 5,000 acres of parkland, close to the town of Aylsham. The current house was built on the site of the Tudor building in 1616 for Sir Henry Hobart.
The Hall has a 55 acre formal garden, which is the result of three centuries of planting, with ancient yews, a parterre, a lake and a walled kitchen garden. There is also a temple dating from the early 18th century, and a large orangery which was founded in 1781.
The garden is open for visits whenever the house is open. Owned and managed by the National Trust, Blickling Hall is open to visitors from March to the end of October.
Image: Andrew Hall/Unsplash
Find out moreFairhaven Water Gardens
Set on the Norfolk Broads, Fairhaven comprises over 130 acres of ancient woodland, woodland gardens and water gardens. Here you will find an ancient fishpond which is listed int eh Domesday book, a 950 year-old oak, and many different species of flowers, including the spectacular Candelabra primulas, 50,000 of which flower in the second half of May and the first half of June.
Fairhaven is open daily from 9am to 4pm, and also hosts a vibrant programme of special events, ranging from guided visits to wild swimming and paddleboarding in the garden’s private broad, where boat trips runs daily (weather permitting).
Image: Fairhaven Garden Trust
Find out moreHolkham Hall
Home to the Earls of Leicester since 1726. Holkham Hall is a fine Palladian house designed by William Kent. The house stands in a park of 1,500 acres, whilst the wider estate stretches to a huge 25,000 acres, one of the most important estates in the country.
Alongside the house is a tranquil and enchanting six acre walled garden, dating back to the late 1700s, which is divided into ‘squares’ and ‘slips’, each with their own theme and associated planting plan. You can also discover a spectacular stand of Georgian and Victorian greenhouses and vineries, a formal ornamental garden, an established vineyard, a working kitchen garden, an exotic garden and a cutting garden with its beautiful array of blooms.
The Walled Garden is open every day from 24th March to 3rd November, from 10am-5pm.
Image © Holkham Estate
Find out morePlantation Garden
The Plantation Garden is a restored Victorian town garden situated next to the Catholic Cathedral in Norwich. It was established between 1857 and 1870 by successful furniture maker and Baptists minister Henry Trevor, on the site of a former chalk quarry. After falling into disrepair after the Second World War, the Plantation Garden Trust was set up in 1980 with the aim of rescuing and restoring the garden.
Sometimes known as ‘Norwich’s secret garden’, today the Plantation Garden features a huge gothic fountain, flower beds, lawns, Italianate terrace, a ‘medieval’ terrace wall, woodland walkways, a ten metre long Victorian-style greenhouse and a rustic bridge. The garden is heavily wooded and provides a habitat for wildlife, making it a haven of peace and tranquillity and a glimpse into a bygone age.
In summer find a big programme of live music, performance and family shows, outdoor cinema and wonderful Sunday afternoon homemade teas. The garden is open 8am-6pm (or dusk if earlier) every day.
Image: © Bev Cogman
Find out moreSheringham Park
Now in the care of the National Trust, Sheringham Park is a landscape park and garden surrounding Sheringham Hall in north Norfolk. Designed by Humphrey Repton from 1812 onwards, the park includes fine mature woodlands with many specimen trees, but is perhaps best know for its huge variety of rhododendrons and azaleas. A garden temple was added in 1975, and there are several viewing towers which you can climb to enjoy the view over the gardens, and out across the North Sea.
Sheringham Park is open every day from dawn until dusk. Entrance is free, but there is a charge of £6.50 to park a car; National Trust members park for free.
Image: Andrew Hall/Unsplash
Find out moreGooderstone Water Gardens
Situated just south of Swaffham, Gooderstone Water Gardens is an enchanting six acre garden, with thirteen bridges criss-crossing waterways, ponds and a natural trout stream. It was created in 1970 by retired farmer Billy Knights on a damp meadow which had become too wet for cattle to graze.
The garden has flat grassy paths, lots of seating, mature trees and shrubs with colourful borders, and a bird hide where you stand a good chance of seeing a kingfisher. There is also a tea room.
Gooderstone Water Gardens are open every day from 10.30am to 5pm (or dusk if earlier).
Find out moreSandringham
The private country retreat of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Sandringham House has been linked to the British Monarch since 1862. Bought by the then Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), the current house was completely rebuilt in the 1870s. The Royal family traditionally spend Christmas at the house.
Set over 60 acres, and enjoyed by the Royal Family and their guests when in residence, the formal gardens are open for visitors between April and October. Created by Geoffrey Jellicoe for King George VI in 1947, they are planted in a cottage garden style, and act as a haven for bees and butterflies.
There are many ancient trees, including an oak which is said to be more than 800 years old, and two ornamental lakes which were landscaped in the 1880s by James Pulham.
Image: Sandringham Estate
Find out morePriory Maze Gardens
Planted in the late 1980s, Priory maze is a seven foot tall maze based on the adjacent ruins of Beeston Abbey, near Sheringham. The cooper beech copies the layout of the priory, and hornbeam infills create the maze.
Alongside the maze are ten acres of beautiful gardens including a fern walk, a Norfolk Riviera garden, a winter garden, a meadow stream garden and a pine walk.
Image: Priory Maze Gardens
Find out more