The Lost Gardens of Heligan

In 1990, Dutch born record producer, Sir Tim Smit, began a journey to find a piece of land to begin a rare breed farm park with his trusty Vietnamese Pot Belly pigs, Horace and Doris. Little did he know that a few months later, he would begin “Europe’s largest garden restoration project” whilst changing the gardening history books.  
 
Tim was introduced to local landowner, John Willis. John, a descendant of the Tremayne family, had recently inherited the derelict Heligan estate. 
 
Tim and John explored the estate with machetes and quickly discovered there could be so much more to Heligan than a rare breeds farm.   

Thirty years on, the 200 acres of gardens and estate at The Lost Gardens of Heligan are some of the most visited gardens in the country much loved by garden explorers, wildlife and plant lovers and garden romantics alike. 
  

Heligan’s history is framed perfectly by a ‘National Collection of Rhododendrons and Camellias introduced to the gardens pre-1920’. There are more than 70 veteran camellias and 350 ancient rhododendrons included in the collection, which produce the most spectacular spring displays. Riotous red and passionate pink blooms surround the perfectly mown lawn of Flora’s Green, wowing visitors as they approach Heligan’s Victorian Pleasure Grounds.  

Heligan is real gardening inspiration, growing over 300 varieties of heritage fruit and vegetables within its productive gardens, you might discover a variety of beans or apples that you've never heard of and you can always speak to one of gardeners to delve a bit deeper.

The  Heligan Jungle is home to a fantastic collection of exotic species of plants surrounded by some historic Victorian plantings. There is a tree fern in the Jungle believed to be the tallest in the UK, standing at an impressive eight meters tall.

The Heligan Estate is very lucky in the fact that it's located on the South coast of Cornwall and we do benefit some of the mildest climates in the UK. There are a number of tropical species of plants throughout the gardens which might not survive in the colder climates of let's say, Yorkshire, in the winter. 

There’s also our sub-tropical Jungle, located in its own south facing valley garden, it has its own little microclimate as it benefits from the Gulfstream and south facing position. We can notice that it can be 5 degrees warmer there than anywhere else in the garden and that plants might flower there two weeks earlier than the rest of the gardens. 

Being situated in Cornwall, we’re surrounded by beaches, amazing campsites and other accommodation along with everything you need for the perfect holiday. Thousands of visitors flock to the gardens each year which helps us along our journey of conservation and restoration.
 

Back in Victorian times, being able to grow pineapples all year round in England was a mighty impressive task and was another way in which the Victorians would show off their wealth. Take a look around your local area and you might see pineapples on gateposts, fence post toppers and on buildings to reflect this Victorian status symbol. After much research, we’ve perfected the Victorian growing method and continue to grow pineapples in the restored pineapple pits of our Melon Yard.  

Heligan’s pineapple pits are heated using a Victorian method which extracts the heat from horse manure to recreate the tropical heat required to grown these much-loved fruits.  

Heligan’s pineapples take 18-24 months to grow so it’s a very labour intensive but worthwhile process which fascinates our visitors.  
It would be very easy for us to replace this method with modern heating techniques but then we’d be consigning another Victorian method to the history books.     

In the early 1900's, Heligan was a self sufficient working estate before the call up for World War One when the Heligan team left for the battlefields. When exploring the gardens back in 1990, a kettle was discovered on the fireplace and Vinery scissors still hung on the glasshouse wall. It was as if the gardeners had downed tools thinking that they would return, however in reality, the Heligan Estate would never be the same again.  

We know that 13 brave Heligan men went to war and of those, nine sadly lost their lives and only four returned.

In the Thunderbox Room (the Gardeners’ toilet) the gardeners’ signatures were found on the wall beneath a message that read; “don’t come here to sleep nor slumber – August 1914.   From the signatures on this wall, Heligan historians, trawled through the archives, visited war memorials and engaged with the local community to learn more about those brave men of 1914. The Thunderbox Room is now recognized as a living memorial by the Imperial War Museum and enables us to share stories of these men whilst honouring their memory in the restoration of the gardens.  

The local community really are the backbone of Heligan who share and help us along this journey of restoration and conservation. Without their support, we wouldn't be able to open the gardens all year round. 
In the early 90’s, visitors were invited to become Lifelong Members. By paying £100 each, they could visit as many times as they like in their lifetime. 30 years on, we’ve loved sharing this journey with them and couldn’t have done it without them. 
We welcome a number of regular Members on a weekly basis and feel that they are part of our close knit Heligan family. We enjoy seeing them for a catch up and love to hear their stories from the last 30 years of garden exploration.  

We welcome a number of regular Members on a weekly basis and feel that they are part of our close knit Heligan family. We enjoy seeing them for a catch up and love to hear their stories from the last 30 years of garden exploration.