Garden & Home Directory · East
The Best Gardens to Visit in the East of England
Our pick of the best gardens to visit in the East of England (Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland), every address checked.
Chatsworth
Bakewell, Derbyshire
Gardens laid out from the late 1600s, with the Great Cascade of 1696, a Capability Brown park and Tom Stuart-Smith's 15-acre Arcadia; best visited April to October.
See details →RHS Garden Hyde Hall
Rettendon, Chelmsford, Essex
A 360-acre hilltop garden with big skies, roses and herbaceous borders, and a famous Dry Garden of drought-tolerant plants that thrive on rainfall alone.
See details →Beth Chatto Gardens
Elmstead Market, Colchester, Essex
Five acres created over more than half a century by one of the great plantswomen, with woodland, water and the celebrated dry gravel garden.
See details →Anglesey Abbey
Lode, Cambridgeshire (National Trust)
A garden with something to see in every season, among the National Trust's best in the East of England.
See details →Blickling Estate
Aylsham, Norfolk (National Trust)
A great Norfolk house with a celebrated parterre garden.
See details →Ickworth
Near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (National Trust)
One of the region's most popular National Trust places, with gardens inspired by classical Italy.
See details →Helmingham Hall Gardens
Helmingham, Suffolk
Grade I listed gardens of the Tollemache family, home for over 500 years, with a walled garden of 1745, potager, topiary walk and colour-themed borders; open May to September.
See details →Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Cambridge
About 40 acres of garden in the heart of the city, holding some 8,000 plant species.
See details →East Ruston Old Vicarage
East Ruston, Norfolk
A 32-acre garden created by Alan Gray and Graham Robeson from 1973.
See details →Easton Walled Gardens
Easton, near Grantham, Lincolnshire
A 12-acre garden rescued from wilderness by Ursula and Fred Cholmeley from 2001, famous for February snowdrops and some 50 varieties of sweet pea in summer.
See details →
Checked October 2026. Opening times, prices and delivery terms change, so please check before you travel or order.