10 glorious UK garden fantasias to visit this summer

Inspired by exotic travels and distant history, these lesser known British spaces are bursting with colour, idiosyncrasy and creative flourishes

If you are holidaying in the West Country, don’t miss one of the very limited chances to visit Wildside, a few miles north of Plymouth, which opens at the end of the month, and again in August. If you’re not, it’s worth a special trip. Wildside is the most exciting of gardens – the extraordinary creation of Keith Wiley, an obsessive gardener, tirelessly driven by horticultural curiosity, ecological exactitude, rage and grief. He ignores all the usual gardening rules and makes new ones, guided by his close observation of plant communities in natural landscapes across the globe. (It is only by casting off the straitjacket of long-established horticultural practice, Wiley insists, that gardeners can discover their true creative potential.) There are myriad unusual plants to see, and plants used in imaginative ways. It is no surprise that Wildside has been hailed as the most adventurous garden in the UK.