International Clematis Society
Conference and Tour
2 - 12 July 2026
SE England, Guernsey and Sark

• Lullingstone Castle and Capel United Church

• Sissinghurst and Goddards Green

• Gravetye Manor, Hever Castle and Long Barn Garden

• Prospect Cottage Garden, Rye and Great Dixter

• Perch Hill (Sarah Raven)

• Nymans Garden

This is the first of what I expect will be a two-part informal photo-montage (with some text, but not much) on the Society conference and tour in 2026, visiting the south east of England, and the islands of Guernsey and Sark. As usual, a full set of articles by members of the group will be published in our next journal. To those of you who came along, I hope it will recall many happy memories, and to others, perhaps it will encourage you to join us in a future year.

In this first part I will cover our time in the south east of England, specifically the country of Kent. It is known as the "garden of England" and for very good reasons.

In the first five and a half days of the tour, we visited gardens both great and small, famous and perhaps a little less well known. Coming in the middle of a most uncommon heatwave in the UK, as elsewhere around the world, unfortunately many of the gardens were suffering from a lack of water. This manifested itself either by much smaller flowers than one would normally expect, or many fewer flowers. The colours of some flowers also seemed to have been affected.

Let me add that we thank all those involved with the planning and execution of this event, and specifically Linda Beutler, Jeff Jabco, Raymond Evison, Brightwater Holidays and all the owners and guides at each location we visited.

Lullingstone Castle and Capel United Church

Meeting up at Gatwick Airport on the first day, we boarded our coach for our first stop at Lullingstone Castle. An old English family estate that dates from the Doomsday Book, the current manor house and castle gate date from around 1500 and have been in the same family since then. It is now the home of the World Garden, designed and populated by Tom Dyke, a modern day plant hunter, where he displays plants from a world-wide range of locations. Each area within the garden depicts the flora of a part of the world. It was fascinating to see the differences. but also the commonality, between difference sections.

Lullingstone Castle Gate House

The World Garden

Australian Eucalyptus with koala!

En route to the hotel where we were staying for our time in south east England, we had a second visit. After a "false stop" at what appeared to be our destination but wasn't, we travelled a short distance further on the road and found the Capel United Church, in the small village of Tudeley. It's a quite attractive building, but its main claim to fame are the stained-glass windows. All 12 windows contain stained glass by Marc Chagall. They depict the complete biblical story, from creation, through the fall, redemption of Christ, restoration and recreation. They all use very vivid colours and are all remarkable.	One of the Marc Chagall windows	A second Marc Chagall window
Marc Chagall signature

Sissinghurst and Goddards Green

Day two and we had a leisurely start as we travelled to Sissinghurst, one of the most famous gardens in England. It was created by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson in the 1930s.

The history of the site goes back to the Tudor era, possibly early, initially as a farm, then a prison for French sailors, a poor house and a Victorian farm estate. Vita and Harold bought it in the early 1930s with a vision of transforming it into a series or romantic rooms, each with a different planting theme. Today it is the epitome of a grand English garden.

Approaching Sissinghurst Garden	Sissinghurst Garden entrance
View from the tower across the gardens
Looking across to the Clematis 'Perle d'Azur wall	Clematis on wall at Sissinghurst
The Cottage Garden	Group in front of the Sissinghurst Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' wall

The second garden of the day was trucked away down a narrow lane and quite hidden from the road. It was Goddards Green, near Cranbrook. For over 400 years it was owned by the Courthopes family, notable clothiers in the area. It changed hands in the 1920 and one more time before being bought by John and Linda Wotton in 1992. With garden designers, Edward and Nicky Flint, they have created a number of new features and integrated them with existing elements. The work continues, as does restoration of the house, as you will see.

Rear of the Goddards Green house	Side of the house
A modern fountain at the end of an original rill	Extensive restoration at the front of the house

On this sunny and hot day, as we travelled back to our hotel for dinner, our coach driver pulled into a layby where there was a stall selling local fresh produce. The display was very attractive, with mountains of strawberries and cherries as well as many other fruits, and prices very reasonable. We left with most members clutching bags.

Roadside fresh fruit stand

Gravetye Manor, Hever Castle and Long Barn Garden

Another important English garden today, Gravetye Manor. It was the home of William Robinson, who bought it in 1884 and lived here until his death in 1935, when he was more than ninety years old. With head gardener, Ernest Markham, they planted trees and shrubs and created different areas for different planting.

The house and gardens were neglected for several years after the death of William, until Peter Herbert, an English hotel owner, bought it in 1958 and established it as one of the original English country house hotels. The gardens have undergone extensive restoration to bring them back into the vision of William Robinson. There are wide borders, small room areas, a woodland and a wonderful walled kitchen garden. Unlike any others I've ever seen, this is oval shaped and sloping. The idea was, I believe, to maximize the sunlight for, and warmth of, the plants.

Approaching Gravetye Manor Hotel	Detail of the roof line
One of the wide flower borders	Garden wall with purple clematis and view of the house
Impressive wide border
Lawn area for drinks and relaxation

From Gravetye Manor we travelled to Hever Castle, an historic moated castle which was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. The castle has extensive grounds and has been developed to cater for all groups of visitors. The castle tells of the history of the building, the grounds contain many walks through woodland areas, there is a large lake and Italian garden area, and there are many activities for children. Visiting on a hot and sunny Saturday, it was busy, though there were a few areas where peace and quiet prevailed, but not so many.

Hever Castle	Hever Castle from one side
Fountain at entrance to the Italian Garden	Italian Garden
There were a few clematis to be found in the gardens

We finished the day with another garden by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, Long Barn Garden. The core of the house is believed to date back to 1360, possibly earlier. The house was bought by Vita and Harold in 1915 and they added a 16th century barn to the house and created the current garden. Although they bought Sissinghurst in 1930 and moved into it in 1932, they kept Long Barn until 1945. It was said that this was always their favourite house to live in. The current owners have been careful to retain original features of the garden.

Long Barn House and Garden	Long Barn House
Long Barn House	Italian style pond
Statue in one corner of the garden	Densely planted flower bed

Prospect Cottage Garden, Rye and Great Dixter

Prospect Cottage stands on a shingle beach at Dungeness. You can't quite see the sea from the garden due to the sand dunes, but face the other way and you can see Dungeness Power Station in the distance. The cottage is a small wooden building, simple in design but very visible due to the bright yellow paint. Surrounding it is a shingle garden, planted with a variety of specimens straight into the shingle. In between the plants are many sculptures made from driftwood and other objects that wash up on the shores around here. It may not be everyone's idea of a garden, but it brings a smile to the faces the many visitors it gets.

Prospect Cottage and Garden	Prospect Cottage Garden, with assorted objects washed up on the beach
Prospect Cottage Garden	The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway also runs very close

Prospect Cottage is close to the medieval town of Rye and we stopped here to wander around and choose somewhere for lunch. There is a 14th century Ypres Tower in Rye which used to form part of the town defenses. However, the best view across the town, surrounding countryside and river estuary is from the top of the bell tower of the Norman St. Mary's Church.

View from the church bell tower across the river estuary to the sea

Bells in St. Mary's Church bell tower

The final visit of the day was to Great Dixter, the home of Christopher Lloyd.

The original timbered house dates from the 15th century but was extensively modified by Edwin Lutyens, along with the garden. In 1910, the house was bought by Nathaniel Lloyd, by this time a very successful and rich businessman, and his wife, Daisy.

Christopher Lloyd lived here from after the second world war until he died in 2006. He made his living from the garden and from writing about gardens and gardening. His first book was published in 1957.

Visitors to the garden were encouraged and could often see Christopher working there, as I can remember on one occasion many years ago. I think he was up a ladder pruning a clematis.

Great Dixter	A guided tour of the gardens
Great Dixter garden	Inside the house
The dining room	Portrait of Christopher Lloyd

It was a beautiful day and perfect for the champagne drinks reception after our tours.

Returning to our hotel for dinner, we then gathered for lectures from Tom Coward of Gravetye Manor and Sam Fry, previously at Gravetye but no head gardener at Rams bury Manor.

Perch Hill (Sarah Raven)

This morning was devoted to Sarah Raven and her own garden at Perch Hill. Sarah is a well-known gardener, author, TV presenter and personality. She is also an organic gardener. At Perch Hill she grows primarily flowers for cutting and flower arranging and she gave us a demonstration of how she does this. It was quite informal and we were encouraged to ask whatever questions we wanted. We were then taken for a tour of her garden, and it was fascinating to see the wide range of plants grown here.

All this was followed by a delicious two course lunch, using many of the ingredients coming from the garden, or nearby organic growers.

A section of the garden of Sarah Raven	Entrance to the lecture room and shop
Selection of flower arrangements	Sarah Raven
The finished demonstration arrangement	Enjoying a delicious lunch

After lunch we returned to our hotel where the afternoon and evening were free to do what you wanted. Some of the group went into Royal Tunbridge Wells to look around and have dinner, others visited the nearby Notcutts Garden Centre, a few minutes down the road from our hotel. There was also a small village 10 minute walk from the hotel with a couple of pubs which could provide dinner. There was plenty of choice for all, wherever you went.

Nymans Garden

Our final day in the UK and, having booked out of our hotel, and before we had to check in at Gatwick airport for our flight to Guernsey, we made a last visit - to Nymans Garden.

The estate dated back to the 14th century. There were various owners of the ensuing centuries until the Messels family bought it in the 1809s.They had much work done o the house and the gardens, introducing many trees and shrubs from different countries around the world. Over the years they sponsored plant collectors to visit countries and bring back rare plants.

in 1947, a fire destroyed most of the house, including a collection of rare botanic books. Post war restrictions meant that restoration was not possible and the house had to be left as a romantic ruin.

Whilst much of the house remains a ruin, the gardens have been developed and continue to evolve along the ideas of the Messels.

The ruin of Nymans House	A wonderful old tree in the garden at Nymans
Magnificent borders at Nymans
Clematis at Nymans

My next report, hopefully next month, will cover our time on Guernsey and Sark. However, before I leave you I would like to mention a special guest in our group - Koda. A service dog, Koda won the hearts of the majority of our group, if not everyone. She was obedient, friendly, very well trained and a pleasure to be with.

Koda

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