High Beeches Woodland and Water Garden

One of the best (and most magical) of the famous Sussex woodland gardens, High Beeches was originally laid out by Colonel Giles Loder, a cousin of the Loders of Wakehurst and Leonardslee. In 1966 it was acquired by Anne and Edward Boscawen, who have devoted many years to its maintenance and improvement. The 27-acre original woodland has been thinned and sensitively under planted with exotics, many of them rare, to enhance the natural Wealden landscape and create a plantsman’s paradise and a place of great beauty and tranquility.

High Beeches is a garden for all seasons. In spring the magnolias and camellias are under planted with swathes of miniature narcissi and the woodland glades and vistas are, in early summer, carpeted with native bluebells and filled with the colour and fragrance of the many splendid rhododendrons and azaleas.

The ‘Loderi Walk’ is planted with mature Rhododendron Loderi Group cultivars filling the garden in May with their scent. In the summer the best ancient acid wildflower meadow in the south east is full of orchids, ox eye daisies, cowslips and many other wildflowers and grasses, a spectacular sight attracting numerous insects and butterflies.

As far as possible plants are allowed to naturalise including narcissi, primulas and the blue willow gentians which flourish here, the only garden in the country where they have done so.

Autumn brings a glorious display of autumn colour provided by the many acers, liquidambers and nyssas.

Please visit in-line with current restrictions, and check their website before visiting to ensure they are open.