The best public gardens in the UK to visit this spring have been revealed. The study, by outdoor living experts White Stores, analysed 240 gardens listed by the Royal Horticultural Society.
They compiled Google ratings, annual rainfall, average temperature, hours of sunlight per year, number of facilities and variety of on-site attractions to give each garden a rating out of 100 and crown the top 10. The highest-ranking public garden in the UK is in Norfolk. The East Ruston Old Vicarage has an overall rating of 86.6 out of 100. With a 4.8 Google rating, the garden offers an array of attractions, earning more points towards its total score – visitors will find sculptures, sub-tropical gardens and a glasshouse open to the public, among others. The garden boasts a low annual rainfall of 917mm, and a pleasant average annual temperature of 11.3 degrees Celsius, plus 2,794 hours of sunshine per year, which combine to give it the 11th best weather score of 8.68 out of 10.
The 32-acre garden also gains points for the wide variety of facilities available: toilets, on-site parking, a plant shop, and an accessible garden layout, while assistance dogs are also welcome.
The second-best public garden in the UK is the Sir Harold Hillier Botanical Gardens, which is the first of seven gardens in the South East that appear in the UK top 10. Located in Hampshire, this spot is just fractions of a point off first place.
It has a 4.7 Google rating from more than 3,000 reviews, and scores 10 out of 10 in the variety factor for its range of key features, including an arboretum, wildflower meadow and children’s garden.
In third spot is Nymans Garden in Sussex with an overall rating of 86.4 out of 100. It is the second most reviewed garden in the top 10, with 6,798 and an average Google review rating of 4.7 from them.
Nymans is described on the RHS website as “a delight for all seasons with its rare and unusual plant collections” and its key features include a Mediterranean garden, herbaceous border and rock garden.
The top five is completed by Trebah Garden in Cornwall in fourth place, with a total score of 85.78 out of 1000, and fifth place, Syon Park in Hounslow, which scored 85.45.
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