Greencombe Gardens

About

A woodland garden and organic showpiece of international renown, Greencombe extends along a sheltered hillside below the tree-covered slopes of Exmoor and offers outstanding views over ancient fields onto Porlock Bay and the sea beyond. Moss covered paths meander through an exceptional collection of ornamental plants that flourish beneath a magnificent canopy of oaks, hollies, conifers and sweet chestnuts. Camellias, magnolias, rhododendrons, azaleas, lilies and hydrangeas flower among rare ferns and the garden's four National Collections. Roses, clematis and other climbers wend their way upwards through an understory which includes a rich collection of maples. 

Greencombe is a postwar garden, laid out in 1946 on a north facing hill. For 50 years, Joan Loraine developed a collection of exceptional plants employing methods that she termed “intrinsic gardening”. Building on established organic methods and shunning chemical sprays, she produced all her own compost and spread copious amounts of leaf mould, resulting in fertile soil with a riot of birds and butterflies all around. While most of the plants have been carefully placed in their present positions, the garden gives the impression that it just occurred and that paths wander around plants that already existed. 

On display throughout the garden are four National Collections; Erythronium, small mountain-lilies; Vaccinium, 'whortleberries worldwide'; Gaultheria, 'whortleberries for bears'; and Polystichum, the 'thumbs-up' fern. Also of special interest, the garden is home to a champion English Holly tree (ilex aquifolium), the largest and oldest in the British Isles. Like all good plantsmen’s gardens, Greencombe is full of rare and wonderful plants and has much to interest and delight every visitor.

Greencombe Garden Trust is a UK registered charity no 281878 dedicated to nature conservation and the improvement of horticulture.