On arrival at Heathrow Airport, a private transfer will take you to our overnight hotel, the Castle Hotel. In the evening, join the group for a welcome drink and canapés, followed by dinner.

Meals: Dinner

This morning, we head to RHS Garden Wisley, the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship garden, gifted to the Society in 1903. Extending over 240 peaceful acres, from beautiful rose and demonstration gardens to tranquil tracts of woodland, Wisley offers a wealth of inspirational ideas on design, innovation and cultivation techniques. The state-of-the-art Glasshouse is divided into three main planting zones representing desert, tropical and temperate climates.

Next, lunch and a guided tour await at Great Comp, an RHS Partner Garden surrounding a lovely 17th-century manor. As one of Kent's finest horticultural gems, it's full of stunning plants such as salvias, magnolias, azaleas, rhododendrons and hellebores and also features an Italian Garden, pretty woodland walks plus the Old Dairy Tearooms.

Later, we check into the Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club, where we stay for the next four nights.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We start the day at Great Dixter, home of gardener and gardening writer Christopher Lloyd. The Head Gardener here treats us to a guided tour of the famous gardens, home to a spectacular mix of topiary, mixed borders, an orchard and a wildflower meadow. We also take a peek around the house which, although largely medieval, has several later additions by Edwin Lutyens. Just one highlight is the Great Hall, one of the largest surviving timber-framed halls in the country.

Afterward we continue to Hole Park, a delightful private home situated in a picturesque parkland setting and owned by the Barham family for the last four generations. This afternoon we enjoy refreshments with a guided tour of the garden, admiring the wide range of colors from beautiful blooms such as tulips, roses, clematis, wisteria, rhododendrons and azaleas, bursting with fragrance and set against the far-reaching views over the hills and woodland.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning we head to Sissinghurst Castle Garden, created in the 1930s by novelist Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. Set around the ruins of an Elizabethan manor house, these world-famous gardens are laid out as a series of individually-planted ‘rooms’, including a fragrant Herb Garden and Rose Garden, and are a delight to explore.

After breakfast, we make our way to Lullingstone Castle, one of the oldest family estates in England and even recorded in the Domesday Book. The present manor house was built in 1497 and has been home to the same family ever since. Altered extensively in Queen Anne’s time, the house boasts fine state rooms and beautiful grounds, including a stunning 15-acre lake and the World Garden, home to thousands of rare plants collected from around the world by Tom Hart Dyke, the current heir, planted in their respective continents of origin. Incredibly, the ideas and plans for this garden were started during Tom’s nine-month kidnap ordeal in the early 2000s, a result of rare plant hunting in the Colombian jungle. There are plenty of unique species, including the world’s most dangerous plant, the hottest chilli and the rarest gum tree, and we find out more during our captivating tour with a Blue Badge guide.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner