Things to see in the garden at Cliveden

Autumn in the Water Garden at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire. | © Hugh Mothersole

Follow in the footsteps of dukes, earls, kings and queens as you stroll through a series of impressive spaces at Cliveden, each with its own special charm. Enjoy year-round interest and colour, from the bedding scheme of the Parterre and the hundreds of roses in the Rose Garden, to Lord Astor’s sculpture collection and the impressive Cliveden Maze. Cliveden is famous for its formal flower displays in the summer, particularly on the grand Parterre, in the Duke’s Garden and on the Lower Terrace. This year, the Parterre will be awash with a dazzling display of white, purple and orange. The sixteen main Parterre beds are being planted up with a mixed display of Salvia ‘Victoria Blue’ and Gazania rigens ‘New Day Clear Orange’. Each bed will also be interlaced with a ribbon of Senecio cineraria ‘Silver Dust’ as we give a nod to the original bedding scheme designs of John Fleming, Head Gardener at Cliveden in the 1850s.

Autumn Seasonal Highlights

The Parterre

Autumn is both a beautiful and busy time in the gardens at Cliveden. Don’t miss the gardeners giving the box hedging on the Parterre its annual cut in September – they use stringlines to meticulously measure out the dimensions of the hedges to give a super sharp finish. In October, the team then cut the yew pyramids on the Parterre to leave crisp silhouettes that will last throughout the winter months.

Autumn Colour

There are also many trees that provide a blaze of autumn colour, particularly in October and November. While there are many fine examples on the estate (such as the Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’ near the Rose Garden) it is in the Water Garden that one can see the most striking specimens. Situated on the central island of this Japanese-inspired area of the estate, Acer palmatum ‘Shishi-gashira’ takes centre stage in October, developing a shaggy mane of orange and red as the season changes. With a distinctive upright habit, ‘Shishi-gashira’ has deeply lobed foliage that is reminiscent of a lion’s mane, hence its nickname of the Lion’s Head Maple. Elsewhere in the Water Garden, towards the Play Area, there are several Acer griseum, known as paperbark maples, that provide a striking show of brilliant orange, copper and red. Best known for their exfoliating cinnamon-red bark that makes for an unusual textural display, they are well worth seeking out so make sure to take a look this autumn!

Herbaceous borders

Elsewhere at Cliveden, visitors can enjoy lots of autumn interest in the herbaceous borders in front of the hotel. Seedheads of the summer flowering herbaceous perennials provide structure, food and habitat for wildlife. Visitors should look out for the autumn flowering of asters, hylotelephium, late dahlias and nerines as all of these provide a blast of vivid late season colour.

Anemones are also a great autumn-flowering favourite. On the Cool Border adjacent to the Clocktower lawn in front of the house, we have A. ‘Honorine Jobert’, a really striking clump forming perennial that has large, semidouble, narrow pure white flowers. With appealing yellow stamens, these anemones provide a great companion for autumn asters, such as Aster cordifolius ‘Little Carlow’, or Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’. Elsewhere on the same border, A. ‘Königin Charlotte’ also draws attention with its large rose-pink flowers.

Our autumn visitors also always ask about the continuous flowering of the salvias in October and November, particularly Salvia ‘Amistad’ and S. ‘Phyllis Fancy’ that can both be found on the Forecourt Borders and in the Long Garden.

Planning your visit to the gardens at Cliveden this autumn

Accessible route and/or map

The access route map is available from the Information Centre.

Picnics

Head to the picnic area opposite the Walled Garden, there are picnic benches / tables at the back of the Water Garden, by the river and at the Woodland lounge.

Seating available

Benches are located throughout the route around the formal gardens.

Steps / uneven terrain

Paths around the formal gardens are laid to hard standing paths with a loose gravel top. Upon leaving the level access route, the Cliveden’s site is undulating with steep slopes in places and many steps (particularly when visiting Cliveden Riverside).

Quiet spots

Blenheim Pavilion, the Rose Garden, the Round Garden and the War Memorial Garden.

Wheelchairs / pushchairs available

Two manual wheelchairs (including off road) and two all-terrain trikes (non-powered) are available from the Information Centre. We recommend hiring in advance of your visit. Please email cliveden@nationaltrust.org.uk or call 01628 605069 to book. Two sturdy pushchairs are available at the Information Centre. Pre-booking is available but not essential.

The Long Garden

Restoration work on Cliveden’s Long Garden is now complete, with the garden reopened to visitors. The aim of this restoration was to create a more sustainable planting scheme designed by James Scott, FSGLD, MBALI, MD and Principal Designer of The Garden Company. James’s design pays homage to Norah Lindsay’s original early 20th-century designs. Situated along the north boundary of the Cliveden estate, parallel with Bourne End Road, the Long Garden has been updated to reflect both its historic roots and modern ecological considerations.

This project involved numerous significant updates. Firstly, the central path has been replaced with a durable York stone paving which has a smooth, even surface, making it more welcoming and accessible for visitors. As a part of this drive for greater accessibility automated entrance gates have also been installed at either end of the garden. The old box hedging has also been removed and replanted with a more resilient yew hedge. Once the path had been laid and the hedge planted, the four central beds were replanted and over the last few months the planting has quickly established, creating a dazzling display of vibrant colour, form, and texture.

The Long Garden Project

The Round Garden

The apple trees trained around the arched structures of the Round Garden are heavy with fruit in the autumn. It's worth a wander through the apple 'tunnels'. The restoration of the garden at Cliveden has revealed many secrets, including a long-lost fruit garden on the northern edge of the woodlands, just a short walk from Green Drive. The Round Garden was laid out in the mid-19th century and is possibly the only surviving example in the UK of a circular fruit orchard from this period.

Having been out of production since the 1950s, it has been brought back to life by the ranger team who are protecting heritage trees and planting many new ones. Wildlife flourished while it was out of action, making it a haven for rare insects and fungi, as well as bats and birds.

Blossom in the Round Garden at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire. | © Hugh Mothersole

The Water Garden

The recent new planting schemes in the Water Garden are really starting to mature now, offering an array of both colour and scent from spring all the way through to the winter months. The Acers, Tai Haku (Great White Cherry) and a Wedding Cake Tree in our new project bed on the right hand side as one enters the Water Garden gave beautiful blossom in the spring. King George rhododendrons, one of the best hybrid rhododendrons with soft pink flower buds that open to pure white and give off a lovely fragrance, are planted at either end of the same bed and provide a wonderful sight. Along the back of the bed are spreading hydrangeas with lilac blue flowers to provide a beautiful backdrop.

Elsewhere in the Water Garden, the pond renovation scheme completed in Summer 2024. The ponds were built in the late 1890's and the concrete that lined them was cracking, allowing water to escape. Now that the repairs have been completed, we will be saving gallons of water every year.

The carp are very happy to be back in their new home and we look forward to seeing how our new aquatic planting scheme of waterlilies, marsh marigolds, iris and myosotis establishes over the coming years’. The Water Garden may take some time to settle after the disruption, but the de-silted, cleaner ponds means that the waterlilies and fish will have more space to thrive.

The Forecourt Borders

Situated in front of the house are two large, double-width herbaceous borders that provide a dazzling display of colour in the summer months. Based upon designs made in the 1960s by Graham Stuart Thomas, the noted horticulturalist and former Gardens Consultant to the National Trust, these visitor favourites feature one hot border filled with tones of red, yellow and orange while the cool border (running alongside the Clock Tower lawn) contains tones of blue, white and purple. The displays are so full that you can spot something new each time you visit, with dahlias, thalictrum, salvias, penstemons and asters drawing particular attention at the height of the season.

The Parterre

In 2024, the garden team changed the bedding by taking more than 12,000 wallflowers, tulips and hyacinths from the Parterre, and replaced these with a striking combination of red and white begonias, interlaced with ribbons of red salvias and white antirrhinums. With red and white geraniums in the Parterre’s yew obelisk beds, it promises to be a vivic display.

In the Parterre’s large semi-circle bed, we will be planting chlorophytum – the spider plant – as a border to a bold display of almost 6,000 red Beacon Impatiens (Busy Lizzies), and the bedding in the Duke’s Garden in 2024 will also be a must-see – around 2,000 Osteospermum Voltage Yellow dotted throughout with Canna Cannova Bronze Scarlet. It should be an electric combination.

The Rose Garden

Cliveden’s Rose Garden – originally designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe for the 3^rd Lord Astor in the 1950s – is a unique take on an ‘Edwardian style’ rose garden. With around 850 roses – including shrubs, floribunda, hybrid teas and climbers – the garden provides a wonderful array of colour from June all the way through to the autumn months.

In 2024, will see the first flowering of the 70 new rose plants that we planted in November 2023, when we excavated and replaced over 20 tonnes of soil. Jellicoe’s scheme has a dramatic colour combination, sweeping from yellow in the east through amber and orange to red in the west and we think the five new varieties that we have introduced – Sir John Betjeman, Sophy’s Rose, Dannahue, Bring Me Sunshine and Roald Dahl – will make a bold addition to the garden’s established design.

At the same time, we have this year introduced a selective range of underplanting in some of the rose beds. With alliums, comfrey, nepeta and Lady’s Mantle, we will be extending the season of interest and – we hope – improving soil health and attracting a more diverse range of pollinators as well.

The Walled Garden

Did you know the main visitor car park was originally a walled garden created to supply the estate with fruit and vegetables? We've been working to reinstate the kitchen garden’s character by planting fruit trees against the walls.

From spring to autumn the Walled Garden provides produce for the estate to use, from lettuce to plums. There is a walk around the perimeter of the main car park for you to get up close to see what we’re growing.

The War Memorial Garden

Cliveden provided the Canadian Red Cross with a hospital during the First World War. In 1918, the 1st Viscount Astor's sunken Italian garden was adapted to create a memorial garden for the deceased. It contains 42 war graves from the First World War, each marked with a stone set in the turf.

If you are planning to make a special trip solely to visit the war graves, please email or call us in advance on 01628 605069. If you would like to incorporate a visit to the War Memorial Garden while exploring the wider estate, please note usual admission charges apply.

Memorial Garden at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire — Memorial Garden at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire | © National Trust Images/ Hugh Mothersole

Bike Policy

We'd love for you to cycle to Cliveden and you can lock bikes up in the spaces provided in the Walled Garden. 5 year olds and under are able to bring small scooters and balance bikes onto the estate. Mobility scooters can also be taken onto the estate but please leave bikes with pedals by the Information Centre.