The garden at Polesden Lacey

Published:: 03 March 2025

Spring borders at Polesden Lacey | © ©National Trust Images/Mark Wigmore

The garden at Polesden Lacey has something to offer in every season. Enjoy the welcome sight of Spring bulbs, blossom and blooms bursting into colour all over the grounds. Admire seasonal colour returning to the formal gardens to herald the arrival of sunnier days ahead. Our team is working hard to take the garden to new heights and ensure there is always something beautiful to enjoy.

Spring highlights in the garden

When the flowers start to bloom in large numbers at Polesden Lacey, it’s a sure sign spring has arrived. There are many different areas where you can enjoy colour in the garden, from the vibrant Spring borders to the large swathes of yellow, cream and golden daffodils emerging from early March.

In Preserve Copse – a rare pocket of ancient woodland set within Polesden Lacey’s gardens - look out for aromatic wild garlic and pretty bluebells. Other Spring wildflowers thriving at Polesden Lacey include cowslips, primroses, violets, wood anemones and stitchwort.

An incredible example of a handkerchief tree (Davidia Involucrata) can also be seen in the Upper Sunken Garden, flowering around April and May and carpeted underneath with delicate, blue camassias.

Delicate ornamental cherry flowers come into flower on Blossom Lawn from March onwards, offering visitors a beautiful spectacle which will only improve with time as the trees establish themselves over the coming years. Then, from mid-April, the gorgeous Wisteria sinensis comes back to life in the Rose Garden, displaying showers of elegant lilac flowers and sending a fragrant aroma throughout the garden.

Daffodils cover the West Lawn at Polesden Lacey, Surrey | © ©National Trust Images/Mark Wigmore

A garden to enjoy in every season

Spring borders: As the name might suggest, the Spring borders are a ‘must-see’ in the gardens at this time of year, really coming into their own from March onwards. Situated at the end of the herbaceous borders in the formal gardens, they are richly planted with trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials and bulbs, offering a riot of colour and fragrance every spring. Plants include some unusual examples of spring colour, such as Erythronium ‘Pagoda’, Scilla bifolia ‘Rosea’, Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ and Muscari armeniacum ‘Lady Blue’ – to name but a few.
Herbaceous borders: Polesden Lacey's garden is home to one of the finest double herbaceous borders in England, featuring perennials, such as helenium, daylilies, rudbeckia and red-hot pokers. Spring highlights here include Forsythia x suspensa var. Sieboldii, complemented perfectly by the beautiful, historical walls. We don’t use herbicides or pesticides in our gardening, as we look to support nature. We do our best to keep out the weeds, smothering them with mulch as much as possible. The local rabbits are harder to keep at bay, and you may see signs of their presence in this area. We also water only new or tender plants and will continue to adjust the herbaceous border planting scheme to support this.
Rose Garden: In the outer borders of the Rose Garden, some of the roses begin to flower from May onwards, revealing shades of blush pink, velvety purple and butter yellow as they climb over the pergola. In May you’ll also see lots of herbaceous perennials in the Rose Garden, including digitalis, geraniums and aquilegia.
Formal garden rooms: To the west of the Rose Garden, you’ll find three seasonal garden rooms. The Iris Garden, Peony Borders and Lavender Garden all provide stunning displays from April through to the beginning of autumn. We have worked hard to restore the condition of these key areas of the garden, including forking grit into the soil to try and improve drainage.
Vegetable Garden: The Vegetable Garden provides produce for the Polesden Lacey café kitchen, from peas to potatoes and raspberries to rhubarb. Our veg team also tends to the cold frames, herb bed and recently introduced fruit cage, which was designed to mirror the outline of the nearby Gardener’s Cottage. We have some exciting plans to renovate this area in the coming years with fencing, cold frames and paths all due for replacement.
House borders: There are borders on all sides of the house. Due to a recent major house render renovation project, we had to remove some of the plants from the borders at the front of the house. The original climbing wires were failing in several places and some of the climbers were overgrown and not in the best health. The delicate wisteria and vibrant orange pyracantha remain, as these were both planted during Margaret Greville’s time. You can expect to see them return to their full glory in a couple of years’ time. In the meantime, our garden team are working on a new planting scheme to incorporate a variety of striking plants that will be in bloom throughout the year no matter what month you visit Polesden Lacey. There are also plans to start restoring the South Terrace house border later on in 2025 to return the bed to the original colour scheme as it would have been in Mrs Greville’s time. You’ll have to pay us a visit to find out which, but by incorporating a mixture of shrubs, climbers, perennials and bulbs it is bound to be a dazzling display of which Mrs Greville would be proud.
The Long Walk: The only formal element of the garden to the east of the house, and probably the most historic part of the garden, this 450m-long terrace has stunning views across swathes of SSSI chalk grassland and on to Ranmore Common and the estate. It is flanked by the atmospheric, shaded Nun’s Walk to the north and connects with the Pinetum to the west. Extensive work has taken place over the winter months to restore the ancient yew hedges on either side, removing bindweed and brambles and creating accessible viewpoints for everyone to enjoy.
Croquet Lawns: Polesden Lacey has always been a place for recreation and play. The tennis court and golf course of its Edwardian heyday have now been replaced with four neatly manicured croquet lawn pitches. Mostly used by local clubs during the week, they are available for public hire at weekends and bank holidays from the end of March through to the end of September. Please ask about availability at visitor reception.
The Ladies Garden: The final resting place for Margaret Greville, this area was her favourite place to sit during her time here. We've added several beautiful plants intended to pay a fitting floral tribute, such as penstemon, nepeta, geranium and purple asters. A couple of years ago, a large group of staff and volunteers also planted a large number of autumn and spring flowering crocuses.
Dog Graves: Although she had no children, Margaret Greville had plenty of dogs while at Polesden Lacey and all 17 are buried here, surrounded by a calming white planting scheme with beautiful forsythia adding splashes of colour later in the season. A wheelchair- and buggy-accessible path runs past this contemplative spot, linking Lime Walk with the West Lawn.

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