By June, Cotswold gardens are at their peak. The gentle climate and long daylight hours encourage a flourish of colour and fragrance. Many gardens in the region reflect traditional English designs, featuring a harmonious blend of structure and romantic informality. You’ll find clipped box hedges guiding your way through exuberant borders overflowing with cottage garden favorites.
Roses, especially, take center stage. Rambling varieties climb stone walls and archways, while heritage English roses, with their heady scents and dusky pinks, whites, and apricots, provide timeless charm.
Here are a few must-see Cotswold gardens in June:
A masterpiece of 20th-century garden design, Hidcote is a series of “outdoor rooms,” each with its own theme and mood. In June, the borders are a riot of colour, and the scented gardens offer an intoxicating escape.
Just across the road from Hidcote, Kiftsgate offers a more personal, family-created atmosphere. It’s home to the famed Kiftsgate rose – a vigorous climber that explodes into creamy blooms in mid-to-late June. The upper gardens also provide spectacular views of the Vale of Evesham.
This eccentric Arts and Crafts garden is filled with hidden corners, lavender fields, and vibrant borders, echoing the eccentricity of the manor’s collections. June is a particularly vibrant time to visit, as the garden bursts into its summer form.
A more unusual find, this 18th-century pleasure garden is steeped in history and whimsy. Though most associated with its snowdrops in February, the structure and symmetry of its formal areas are delightful in summer when softened by seasonal planting.