Trebah is one of those archetypal Cornish grand gardens which start up high on a headland and work their way down through large plantings to an estuary. I have to say that having visited Heligan a number of times and Coleton Fishacre my enthusiasm wasn’t that high. Don’t get me wrong they are very nice but it gets a little repetitive plus Trebah’s website was very family friendly with zip wires and adventure playgrounds for children etc. Hmm.
Anyway, the garden was open on Sunday so we thought we would have a look-see and I have to say I am glad we did. Trebah has its own character and I suppose I should have realised this. After all there are lots of cottage style gardens, wildlife gardens etc and they all have their own personality – well almost. We were initially impressed with the fact that our tickets were valid for the whole week which seems an excellent deal especially is you have young children on holiday and want somewhere for them to run around and let off steam.
At the top end of the garden around the house and entrance there was a fascinating collection of succulent plants: Aeoniums, Echeveria, Agave, Aloe. These are already becoming a theme to our holiday with me buying one or two more at each place we visit.
We decided to start on the right hand side and explore the Koi Pool, Cascade and Water Garden. You are very quickly walking along path surrounded by rhododendrons and azaleas amongst Chusan palms, some of them champion trees being the tallest in the UK, all under planted with wild foxgloves, bluebells, wild garlic and champion. Interestingly the smell from the wild garlic was quite strong walking in one direction but completely over-powered by the azaleas when you walked back the other way. This is a garden where you are looking at the views, looking out across the valley or looking up into the branches above. It isn’t a garden for looking at neat and dainty plantings. That is until you come round to the Cascade.
Following on from yesterday’s visit to RHS Rosemoor I have to say I am a sucker for a cascade when it is planted with ferns and primula pulverulenta. The cascade in places was very like a rill and even my eldest started to conjecture that as we already had the slope would it really be that hard for us to have a cascade in the garden – umm yes! I know some people are sniffy about the yellow primula, I think they have a habit of spreading, but in this setting they really looked quite breathtaking and were certainly stealing the show.
After lunch, we explored the left hand side of the garden taking the Beach Path downwards. Again you are looking at the views and vistas, looking up at the Azaleas you were walking amongst in the morning and admiring the camellias which were still in flower. Unlike some of the other gardens of this ilk, Trebah is a very gentle walk down, and up. On the way down you encounter a vast glad of bamboo which amusing has been labelled Bamboozle on the map. We had seen vast bamboos at Rosemoor but some of the specimens here made Rosemoors look like dwarfs. The individual canes were the diameter of your average downpipes and they really didn’t feel like they were a plant having a strange plasticy quality about them. This promoted a stupid conversation about the possibility of my son having bamboo guttering on his workshop.
You then pass past Gunnera Passage (hmm!) and I have to say that sadly this really cured my fascination with Gunnera. There were so many of them and in the bright sunshine with their weird flower heads and unfurling leaves they were quite sinister and well ugly.
Finally you come to the last pond with a pretty bridge over it and find yourself at the beach. I was fascinated to learn that during World War II the 29th US Infantry Division was based at Trebah and 7,500 men embarked for the D-Day landings from the beach. I found it very hard to imagine the tanks and military paraphernalia amongst the beautiful surroundings but had to remind myself that was a different time and everything would have been different. We thought it very fitting that there was a memorial to the men, many who died in the landings, by the beach.
Trebah has a fascinating history. It was created in 1838 by Charles Fox, a Quaker scientist and president of the Royal Geographical Society of Cornwall. His family stayed at Trebah for three generations. In the 1960s the property was owned by Sir Donald Healey designer of the Austin Healey. Finally the property was bought by the Hibberts in 1981 and opened to the public in 1987 before being donated to the Trebah Garden Trust.
For me aside from the amazing bamboos and the picturesque primulas the best bit was sitting on the beach watching boats drifting past. We talked and reminisced about past holidays, collected shells and were entertained by toddlers and dogs discovering the joys of the sea-shore.