Hidden Valley Gardens is a beautiful barn conversion offering spacious, comfortable accommodation, set in its own 4 acres award-winning Garden which has been developed into a display garden and specialist plant nursery. Run by plant lovers who are happy to share their knowledge and enthusiasm. Self-catering Accommodation: We have two lovely self-catering units available called the "Garden Studio" and the "West Wing". Clink on the links to the left for details. Garden Open Dates:  From 20th March  -  15th October each year, daily from 10.00 a.m.  -  6.00 p.m. (Except Tuesdays and Wednesdays) Entry: Adults £3.50 Chidren Free (entrance to Plant Nursery is free) Dogs: Good dogs welcome on lead with careful owner Public Transport: Nearest bus stop is 2 miles away in Tywardreath. Nearest train station is Par Station which is 3 miles away. Wheelchair Access: There is a special parking position to provide direct access onto grass and paths. The garden is gentle sloping in places which can make it difficult particularly in wet weather. There are a few steps but access to all areas can be gained without using these steps. Garden Group visits: Available by appointment, but access not possible with full sized touring coaches. Garden Special Events 2012: Special opening for the Daphne du Maurier festival from May 10th to 19th(including the Tuesday and Wednesday) – Morning Coffee or Cream teas and cakes all day, plus Children's quiz Garden open for the National Gardens Scheme on Sat. Sun and Mon. August 13th,14th and 15th with cakes and cream teas. all day, plus children’s quiz.

Introduction It has always been our dream to ‘retire’ to Cornwall and develop a garden with a nursery open to the public.  Eventually after much searching we moved here in November 1999 with a thousand plants and a 10ft X 10ft greenhouse in a large removal van.  This had to park a mile up the lane to unload, and all our possessions were delivered in small loads.   The property is a barn conversion that needed extensive works before we could open. We had the builders in for over a year, but they just finished in time for opening at Easter 2001. The nursery and garden have now taking shape after much hard work.  The apartments and nursery are run single handed by me with some help in the garden.   I specialise in cultivating perennials for sale, which can be seen growing in the garden.   It is not a typical Cornish garden with rhododendrons and camellias, although I have developed a woodland garden in one area with various trees and shrubs.  I propagate many of the plants for sale in the nursery from my garden and although I have limited stock it should be interesting.  The garden is well labelled and visitors are welcome to walk around all areas.  There is a Tea Hut next to the Sales area, where you can serve yourself tea/coffee with home made cakes.   There is also a toilet and picnic tables.

Hidden Valley Gardens Newsletter, Christmas 2010

Another year is drawing to a close.  Eleven years at Hidden Valley Gardens have flown by – very worrying. As usual we went away in November when the garden closed for the season and the plants were put ‘to bed’ for the winter. When we go it always starts to rain here. This year we sat on the beach on my birthday (Nov. 17^th) in the Lanzarote sunshine, only to hear of flash floods locally in St. Blazey, Lostwithiel, Par and Mevagissey on the BBC News. Luckily we only had some mud on the drive and soggy lawns, although the Pond was overflowing and the spring under the Fairy Well was at full flow.  Caroline, our house-sitter however could not get out to check their house as the local roads were closed and had an anxious time until they found out their home had missed the flood by 2 inches. Many businesses and the Eden Project had to close.  You just do not know what to expect from the weather lately – earlier in the year we had a cold winter for Cornwall again, temperatures down to -7C. However, after that we had a hot dry spell in the spring and beginning of the summer, followed mainly by sun with short but hard periods of rain, which kept the garden looking green and colourful during the summer.  So not too bad overall for us, but we feel very sorry for those locally who were badly affected by the November floods.

It was an excellent year in the Garden with visitor numbers up over 20%, even though we are now closed for two days a week. It was very noticeable that we had a significant increase in foreign visitors from Germany, France, Holland, Denmark and Norway which helped boost the numbers. We were also surprised by the foreign children who not only enjoyed the children’s quiz but easily dealt with the challenge of it in English!  We much enjoyed the freedom of being able to go out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (our days off) visiting the lovely Cornish coast and countryside and even other Gardens!  The number of plant sales was also up – I think mainly because I had more time to enjoy myself propagating in the plant nursery and so there was a greater selection of plants for sale.  Visitors particularly like to buy a plant they can see flowering in the Garden, so I shall be propagating as many plants as possible from the Garden next year.

The Daphne du Maurier Festival over 10 days in May was particularly busy again - we could hardly keep up with serving the cream teas and cakes. We are pleased to hear it is going ahead again next year between 12^th - 21^st May, despite the financial cuts.  The hardy geraniums and columbines are at their best then as well as alpines and lots of different primula. The new 36 metre long wooden raised bed with dianthus, lavenders and salvias came into ‘production’ early with the better drainage and lighter soil.  Our National Garden Scheme charity days are in August for the second time (Sat 13^th, Sun 14^th, and Mon 15^th) when the Crocosmia and Dahlias will be at their best and also some late Agapanthus.  The collections of Crocosmia and Dahlias were really colourful this year with the Dahlias in full flower from July to October.  We are slowly building up a collection of named Agapanthus, which do very well here in Cornwall.

We still have our loyal band of helpers - Shirley, Caroline, Allie, David and Andrew, who all work very hard helping us to maintain the Garden and supporting the self-catering accommodation. Also Mum and Dad who still like to come over once a week and help with the lighter tasks.  Thanks to you all. Peter does of course help a lot and he now has two sit-on tractor mowers (as he keeps breaking them)! At least we can keep the grass well trimmed while waiting for parts etc.

In October we were really delighted to receive a Cornish Tourism Award under the “Small Visitor Attraction” category.  We got the Silver Award ☺☺!! (Penlee House Museum and Art Gallery in Penzance received the Gold Award and Camel Valley Vineyard received the Bronze Award in this category). All attractions are scored under 16 criteria and we received 13 ‘excellent’ or ‘superb’ marks including ‘Quality of Experience’ and ‘Value for Money’. Ben Fogle gave out the awards at a dinner at St Mellion International Hotel and Country Club. He looked very dishy in his evening suit ☺! 

I usually have a number of new projects each year.   The main one this year was Betty’s Path - a slate path that curves its way from Nursery sales area to the large greenhouse.  It blends in well and we enjoy using it many times each day.  This path, laid in memory of my Aunty Betty who loved the Garden, replaced a path of chippings and was finished in February.

With the good growing weather the Garden was even more full of colour from spring to autumn. ‘Wonderful colour’ was a recurring comment in the visitor’s book.  The sweet peas did very well - we could not keep up with picking them and we managed to get a good colour mix. Many of our visitors went home with a bunch. This autumn I have harvested many seeds from the garden and following requests, I shall sell some surplus in the Tea Hut next year.  I am busy packaging them up. It is so rewarding to grow plants from tiny seeds - I look forward to it every year. During these winter months I will also spend some time preparing more ‘fun garden plaques’ for sale - these are made of  marine ply and have hand painted flowers with short garden related saying. They have a short stake to ‘plant’ in a garden bed.

The ‘tree’ fruit was not so abundant this year but we have had our first Walnut (this tree is now 4 years old) and, at last, some Greengages (this tree is 7 years old). The soft fruit was in ‘overload’ mode, particularly the Blackcurrants and the Autumn Raspberries were great from July to the start of November but the Strawberries were eaten by the squirrels.

As usual at this time of the year I am looking forward to the spring, which comes early in Cornwall.  Soon the daffodils, snowdrops and hellebores will be out in the Garden and after that our lanes will be filled with primroses and I will be enjoying the new garden year at Hidden Valley.  

With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Tricia Howard