Celebrate National Children's Gardening Week with VICTA

By Sonal Sumaria

As you all may know from reading my previous articles, I love everything to do with plants, especially visiting beautiful gardens across the UK where I can visualise extraordinary landscapes and planting styles.

My birthday was a few weeks ago and to celebrate, I experienced a beautiful day out at Hever Castle and Gardens in Kent. I’m grateful it didn’t rain that day, as it was an outdoor trip and a slightly chilly day, however the sun did peek out to warm up my special day!

Photograph copyright of Sonal Sumaria 2021, not for reuse.
Image description: Sonal at Hever Castle with a brilliant smile, standing holding her white cane among the daffodils. Behind her there is a lake with a bridge, willow tree and manicured hedges. 

Hever Castle (and Gardens) is the birthplace of Anne Boylen. She had acres of beautiful gardens and in comparison the castle looked quite small! The castle is currently closed to the public but I certainly enjoyed having a closer look at the plants and appreciating the stunning views.

I visited the gardens in April and saw 100s of different species of Narcissus (otherwise known as daffodils), I discovered white, pale yellow and bright yellow varieties of Narcissus! There were also beautiful bedding displays of bright blue and yellow violets.

If you depend on your hearing to get around, you can hear and enjoy the running water, because in each corner of the garden, there is a different water feature. Take a moment to stop and hear the different speeds the water is running at each feature. Speaking of water, there are also a number of lakes to walk round and enjoy.

If, like me, you enjoy photography, you’ll have millions of opportunities to take stunning pictures! I definitely had fun taking some beautiful landscape photos, which included many elements, such as the water, castle and the multitude of plants I set my eyes on.

Photograph copyright of Sonal Sumaria 2021, not for reuse.
Image description: A bright yellow daffodil facing front-on to the camera, the background is blurry and contains more daffodils, different shades of greens with purple splashes and large lake.

Photograph copyright of Sonal Sumaria 2021, not for reuse.
Image description: A tree shaped beautifully like a large cone. At the base of the trunk is a dense, domes bed of flowers with bright blue flowers standing out against the greenery.

Photograph copyright of Sonal Sumaria 2021, not for reuse.
Image description: Hever castle standing behind a lake in which it is reflected. The green banks of the lake are dotted with daffodils.

I would highly recommend you visit Hever Gardens, however I would suggest you visit with someone as the accessibility could be improved in some areas. There were a number of deep, shallow and narrow staircases dotted around the gardens, which unfortunately didn’t have rails, luckily I had my long cane and my family’s support to help me navigate. I also wanted to mention that the lakes and water features don’t have any kind of cordoning, so please don’t get to close to the water!

If you have a visit, I’d love to hear what plants you discover. Here I some of the plants I enjoyed while visiting in April:

  • Cherry Blossoms
  • Camellia
  • Violet
  • Narcissus ‘Sailboat’
  • Narcissus ‘Recurvus’
  • Narcissus ‘Crewenna’
  • Narcissus ‘Red devon’
  • Narcissus ‘Ice follies’
  • Narcissus ‘Beau Vallow’

I hope you have a lovely Gardening week and that my article has inspired you to visit Hever Castle and Gardens or indeed any other garden across the UK! If you have a favourite location, or gardens you find particularly accessible, please let me know in the comments below!

Photograph copyright of Sonal Sumaria 2021, not for reuse.
Image description: A photo of the bridge as you cross over it. The bridge has weeping willow branches hanging over it and you can just make out Hever Castle peeping through in the background.

Photograph copyright of Sonal Sumaria 2021, not for reuse.
Image description: A sloping raised flowerbed in a circular design – there is a ring of white flowers around the outside, then orange and a mixture of greenery, purple and orange in the centre. There is a path leading up to the bed and two statues in the background.