Explore the garden at Coughton Court

Summer Garden

Come and enjoy the gardens at Coughton this summer. With vibrant displays of flowers and long, warm days, summer is the perfect time to come and explore our beautiful, award-winning gardens.
Our aim here at Coughton has always been to create a garden worthy of such an important historic house and to provide enjoyment for our visitors. There is a huge amount of variety in gardens and the gardeners are always striving to extend the flowering period so that there will always be something for our visitors to see no matter what the season.

The walled garden is open, on open days, from 12 noon. The rose labyrinth boasts over 200 different varieties of roses with a large selection of rambling and climbing roses, including Damasks, Albas, Teas and Noisettes, all releasing a delicate fragrance. Don't miss this beautiful summer display.
The largest plant in the bog garden is the gunnera but there is lots more to enjoy during your stroll with plenty of colourful plant and bird life. The bog garden has been cleared, enhanced and replanted since last summer and is looking great.
If you are looking for flowers, we have them everywhere from the moment you walk past the shop, around the courtyard and throughout the gardens. In early summer look out for the peonies and foxgloves, roses around the sunken gardens and the plants and flowers growing in the bog garden.
Take a stroll around the vegetable garden where you'll see our raised beds where we are looking forward to some tasty crops. The weather, of course, plays a part in this so we are wishing for a good summer.
We do hope you enjoy a peaceful stroll around our gardens which are lovingly cared for throughout the year by our teams of gardeners and volunteers.

An award-winning rose garden

The Throckmorton family rose garden at Coughton Court is recognised as one of the finest in the world and received the Award of Garden Excellence from The World Federation of Rose Societies in 2006 – the first British garden to have done so.

The gardens boast over 200 varieties of roses with a large selection of rambling and climbing roses, including Damasks, Albas, Teas and Noisettes, all releasing a delicate fragrance. These are found not just in the labyrinth but in many other areas as well.

Explore the orchard

Meander through the orchard and see if you can identify the quince, plum, gage, medlar, damson, cherry and of course apples trees. The best time to visit is either in the spring for the beautiful blossom, or the autumn for the bountiful fruit.

The orchards are comparatively young but contain lots of old varieties. There are two orchards either side of the vegetable garden. The hedge on one side of the vegetable garden consists of apple trees being trained into a diamond formation.

A productive vegetable garden

Step into the veg patch and see what you can spot. It might even give you some inspiration to start your own patch at home.

Visit the bog garden

Fed by fresh water from the spring, the bog garden is home to Gunnera the size of elephant ears, Hostas and the unusually named skunk cabbage. There are lots of ferns which look amazing when they are unfurling in the spring. It’s bursting with life from April to September.

Water features to spot

There are several water features here at Coughton including the expansive Westminster pool, the symmetrical courtyard quatrefoil pool, the marshy bog garden, the River Arrow, the weir stream and the tranquil pool garden set within the walled garden. Take a look at the centre piece of the water feature in the walled garden which has been specially manufactured to match the previous one which had detiorated beyond repair.

Wildlife to spot at Coughton

Due to the variety of habitats, from woodland to meadow, river to lake and the mature trees dispersed around the well-maintained grounds, the diversity of wildlife at Coughton Court is fantastic.

The ranger and garden teams work hard all year to create habitats where wildlife can thrive. Thanks to their efforts the parkland and gardens are overflowing with wildlife, especially during the summer months, from bees enjoying the nectar, swallows returning for the warmer months and butterflies fluttering through the walled garden.

Swans

The swans have hatched some cygnets which you may see as you walk around the pool and the bog garden. They grow up very quickly but will be around for a while before they learn to fly.

Woodland wildlife

Over in the bluebell wood there's a variety of animals and wildflowers, including cow parsley lining the pathways and birds calling from above. If you're lucky you may even spot some roe and fallow deer as well as lots of squirrels and insects hiding under fallen branches.

As you wander through the woodland listen out for the tapping of a great spotted woodpecker hollowing out a tree ready to be used to raise their young. Here at Coughton you can spot birds of all shapes and sizes, from blue tits and nuthatches to buzzards and herons. There are also swallows nesting in a variety of places.

Waterside wildlife

Around the lake and riverside, spot the ducklings and goslings as they grow throughout the summer months. If you're very lucky you'll spot the distinctive flash of blue of a kingfisher as they shoot across the top of the water.