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Gardens at Holme
Whether you spend an hour or a day in the beautiful landscaped gardens at Holme, you are bound to see plenty of plants and wildlife to delight and inspire. Each garden room is a treasure to explore from the butterfly meadows and wild pond areas, to the burgeoning borders and newly refurbished kitchen garden, grass amphitheatre and lavender avenues.
There are vistas and focal points which lead you on to discover more. Thousands of flowering trees, shrubs, spring bulbs and cottage garden plants ensure there is something to see all year round. Regular visitors enjoy seeing the garden develop with more additions and expansions occurring each year. Come and relax, enjoy and watch our gardens as they change throughout the seasons.
Prices
Day Ticket - £8.50
2025 Season Ticket - £25
Under 17's - FREE
Carers - £2
RHS card holders/ members - FREE on Mondays and Tuesdays
Opening times
Garden Centre & Gardens - Monday to Saturday: 9.00 am - 5.30 pm | Sundays: 10:30 am - 4.30 pm
Orchard Café - Monday to Saturday: 9.00 am - 5.00 pm | Sundays: 9:30 - 4.30 pm
ALL THESE TIMES APPLY TO BANK HOLIDAYS
The gardens are wheelchair and mobility scooter accessible.
We are also dog friendly and have plenty of free parking!
2025 Season Ticket Now available
Just £25 for 2025
A Season Pass makes a lovely present for a Gardening Friend...
1. Salt Pig Farm Shop
From October 2023, The Salt Pig operates the farm shop at Holme. The Salt Pig is a local food and deli company, first opening its doors in 2010.
2. Garden Centre Shop and Tills
Garden sundries, gift shop and seeds.
3. Orchard Café
Holme made breakfasts, lunches, cakes and cream teas, with indoor conservatory seating and al fresco pond side terraces.
4. Garden Centre
At Holme for Gardens, we are passionate about plants and want to share our knowledge with you. Check out our new YouTube channel for tips and tricks on gardening, plant care and more.
5. Pink and Purple Borders
Mixed borders in theme of pink and purple. Look out for the rare Paper Mulberrry tree.
6. Hot Borders
Displays of hot oranges, reds and yellows, at their best mid to late Summer and Autumn.
7. The Wedding Borders
Classic vista and focal point, framed by borders planted in whites and pastel shades.
8. The Events Pavilion
A place to sit and relax in a little shade, looking out over the Events Lawn.
9. The Palm Garden
Architectural foliage and stems, with vibrant flowers.
10. Cloisters
Purple beech hedges form arched windows looking into beds of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’.
11. Sir Roy’s
Design based on the teaching of Sir Roy Strong and his garden The Laskett. “The need for flowers in a garden, is an admission of failure in design.”
12. Pear Tunnel
30 varieties of edible pear trained onto wrought iron framework. An exhibition of summer pruning. Flowers March April. Fruits August to October.
13. The Kitchen and Cutting Garden
Twelve formal beds planted with edible plants and flowers for cut flower display.
14. Canal Garden
Completion of Canal by end 2024. Formal topiary and flowers.
15. Informal Garden
Layout influenced by Alan Blooms’ Dell-Garden in Norfolk with informal shaped ‘island beds’ that can be viewed from all sides. Planted with a mix of trees, shrubs, perennials, conifers, and annuals.
16. Holme Henge
A Stone Circle formed from 2-tonne Purbeck stone monoliths. Planting inspired by our local heaths and by Adrian Bloom’s Norfolk Garden, Foggy Bottom.
17. North Arboretum and William Robinson Meadow
A meandering path with unusual cultivars of ornamental trees. The meadow beneath influenced by William Robinson in his book ‘The Wild Garden’ where he advocates the use of ornamental and exotic species planted in a naturalistic style.
18. Lavender Avenue
A pair Lavandula ‘Munstead’ hedges modelled on those found in Provence. Flowers June -July but even outside of flowering the grass avenue is impressive, lined by fastigiate hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘Franz Fontaine’.
19. Grass Amphitheatre
Completed in 2018 as a feature for the garden, the theatre now hosts several productions from touring theatre companies. To see the 2025 programme of exciting productions and plays please go to our events page.
20. Apple Orchard and Sterling-Ellis Meadow
150 varieties of apple trees including both modern and heritage varieties and a lovely long grass meadow teeming with wildlife. Short mown paths allow you to get close up and personal with wildflowers, insects and butterflies. Phil Sterling and Sam Ellis from Butterfly Conservation advise on the meadow management.
21. Sheep Field
Used by a local farmer for winter grazing.
22. Butterfly Valley and Pond
Created in 2019. The topsoil has been removed to reduce fertility and the area sown with native wildflowers. Originally sown with 25 native species, this number has increased rapidly and a survey in 2023 found 85 species of plant. A clear example of how quickly nature can recover given the right conditions.
The pond is part of the rainwater harvesting system collecting winter rainfall from the garden centre roofs to use for irrigation of the gardens and garden centre plants in summer.
Sit on the deck, in the Adirondack chairs and enjoy the pond and wildlife.
23.Tower Arboretum
Unusual trees, meadow and meandering paths. It is hoped in due course to build a viewing tower to enjoy looking down on the garden and to see across to Lady St. Mary’s church in Wareham 2 miles away.
24. Giant’s Causeway
Based on the Isaac Newton quote ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants’. An homage to all those who have influenced horticulture through plant hunting, breeding, distributing, conserving to those who have designed, innovated, built and written about gardens and garden design. Without these ‘Giants’ we would not have the amazing opportunity to create the gardens of today.
25. Filbert Street
Completion in 2025 – A green lane lined with drystone walls high banks and covered with hazel trees to form a natural winding tunnel. Influences include Cornish hedge walls and forest tracks described by Tolkien in the Hobbit.
26. Garden Nursery
Plants grown for gardens. No public access.
27. Reservoir
Harvested rainwater for irrigating gardens and garden centre. Holme is self-sufficient in water.
28. Native Tree Nursery
To help with local environmental tree planting projects.
29. Woodside
The most sheltered part of the garden, cool and shady allowing us to grow maples and woodland plants.
30. Jim’s Wood
Jim Goldsack (Simon’s father) cleared the 15ft Rhododendrons so the wood could recover with bluebells, stitchwort, woodbine and other native woodland flora. Rare Camellias, Japanese Maples and ferns will gradually replace the thick carpet of holly seedlings.
31. Wisteria Walk
A high arch and wrought iron framework with 14 different Wisteria varieties forms the central part of the tunnel vista which integrates the Pear Tunnel and Hanami Avenue.
32. Hanami Avenue
Japanese cherry variety ‘Ichyio’ planted in 2020 to celebrate the Japanese cherry blossom festival of Hanami.
33. Annual Flower Field
Once a common site in the UK countryside these cornfield annuals put on a sensational show in June and July and are buzzing with pollinating insects. This annual display is gradually being replaced with a more sustainable mix of rare trees, shrubs, conifers and perennials.
34. Hypericum National Collection
This is Holme’s first National Collection of plants inherited from Wakehurst Place (Kew’s Sister Garden). A National Collection seeks to preserve and conserve rare species and cultivars within a particular genus. We hope to have many more of our own sourced National Collections in future including Magnolia, Sorbus, Viburnum, Physocarpus, holly and Japanese Cherry.
35. Grass Car Park – South
Even here the horticulture continues with 7 different types of walnut, foxglove trees, Indian Bean tree and Indian Chestnut.
36. Solar Panels
Part of our Zero Carbon goal. These produce two thirds of the business electricity requirements.
37. Grass Car Park - North
38. Main Car Park
39. Entrance
Guide to the Gardens:
holme henge
Beautiful Holme Henge, a creation inspired by Scottish Neolithic stone circles. The two tonne Purbeck stone monoliths were specially chosen by Simon and Liz from the California Farm, Suttles quarry near Swanage. Planting which was inspired by our local heaths and by Adrian Bloom’s Norfolk Garden, Foggy Bottom.
Heathers are fantastic because... they are easy to grow; different types flower in every season; and they are brilliant for bees.
Heather plants supplied in pots can be planted at any time of the year when the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. We have a great selection of heathers for you to choose from, and are happy to offer advice. Why not visit the Holme Henge Heather garden and see how beautiful heathers can be?
