Bookings Rush

Villa Silvia Pellico

Turin Tour 2/3 Booked

We always expect a rush of bookings when details of new tours hit the doormats, but this year’s response seems exceptional. Hortus goes to Piedmont is 2/3 booked after just a few days, with most single rooms already gone. Each tour has its own pigeon-hole here in the office, the booking and hold lists for most have started to fill. Very satisfying for us, but many folk lost out on tours last year, contacting us after tours were filled. Indeed, many of those now booking early and fast are those who missed out last season, so the best advice really is to book early to avoid disappointment….Click this link for more information on 2014 Garden tours

Jimi Blake; Dublin & Wicklow Tour

Comments from recently returned Autumn tours:

‘We both felt that ‘Hortus goes to Normandy’ was exceptionally good, even by your high standards..….’  (Normandy, September)

‘Thank you for a lovely autumn break.….’  (Normandy, September)

‘Some fabulous places; pure delight.….’  (Normandy, September)

‘Thank you for everything. …..’  (Dublin & Wicklow, September)

‘This was a superb holiday: beautifully planned with amazing gardens & equally amazing owners who gave us so much time & wonderful hospitality..….’  (Dublin & Wicklow, September)

‘Perfect: thank you for rearranging the flight home……’  (Dublin & Wicklow, September)

‘We had such an enjoyable time on the recent tour of the Lake District…….’  (Lake District, September)

Box-edged
Rose Garden

The Boxwood Logo

It seems a long time ago now when, in the late ‘80s, we were looking for a name and logo for a new garden tour business. Clipped box was a feature of many gardens at that time with a resonance of permanence & quality (before ‘box blight’, that was!), and Langley Boxwood Nursery inspired us with the use of the longer American term. By chance, far below our Victorian second floor flat in Oxfordshire, we had only recently laid out and planted our pocket handkerchief plot with a formal box edged rose garden appropriate to the Victorian terrace setting, the bird’s eye view of which became the Boxwood logo.

Since then we have (almost) managed to raise 2 daughters, moving house twice along the way (both gardens featuring boxwood), now located between mountains and sea in N.W. Wales, with dog & cats in the kitchen, hens & pigs in the orchard, and rich landscape & wildlife just ‘over the garden wall’. We are very lucky…

Times have changed enormously from the days when the local employment agency helped with our correspondence on an electric typewriter: first we learned typing, then word-processing, spread-sheets, emails, web sites & blogs, and now it seems that we may have to learn about Facebook, probably from our daughters.

All a long way from our ‘hands on’ Kew training and professional gardener roots…

But not so far that we can’t use our horticultural knowledge and experience and our friendships in the gardening world to continue to research, plan and organise quality garden tours that we learn from travellers’ comments bring great joy & pleasure.

So, we hope that at least one of the 2014 tours suits your diary and interests; if not, do hang on until late December when details of late season tours should land on your doormat.