A year in the life of Hampton Court Palace gardens

Spring is an exciting time in the Hampton Court Palace Gardens, when daffodils, snowdrops, tulips and other spring blooms fill the Wilderness and the Pond Gardens with a riot of colour.

While some gardeners are busy pruning and nurturing tens of thousands of plants in the nurseries, it's time to 'groom' the gardens ready for spring and summer visitors. And not all the visitors are human!

Summer in the Hampton Court Palace gardens is about colour and activity. As the Privy Garden is transformed by the scent and shape of Queen Mary II's Exoticks collection, the Rose Garden bursts into life.

Later in summer, a glorious collection of dahlias come into full bloom, gracing both the Kitchen Garden and the Dahlia Border.

It's all change in autumn, when our expert gardeners harvest a spectacular collection of pumpkins, squashes and other produce in the Kitchen Garden, and plant over 200,000 bulbs ready for winter. 

Elsewhere, autumnal colour can be seen in the Wilderness as the leaves start falling.

It may look quiet in the gardens over winter but, as former Head of Gardens and Estates Terry Gough says, the gardeners aren't hibernating! 

Our expert Hampton Court Palace gardeners are working hard to nurture our grounds, both in-front and behind the scenes.