Ken-Caro Garden

This five-acre connoisseurs' garden enjoys panoramic views and is brimming with year-round colour.

Set high above Bicton Manor Woods, Ken-Caro has been carefully planted by Mrs Willcock and her husband Kenneth - a garden-enthusiast and horticultural-columnist. Sweeping island beds lead out to a spectacular countryside view, conjuring up a miraculous sense of spacious beauty within just four acres.

The creation of Ken-Caro only began in 1970, and the original planting focused on vegetables and fruit (including a large rhubarb bed). In 1994 the vegetable garden was transformed into a 'secret garden' and in the years since, many new areas have been planted and new features added. Its extension and development is ongoing, but this horticultural hotspot is particularly notorious for its endless exhibition of radiant colours throughout every season.

From February the plot is rife with blankets of snowdrops and daffodils, and already the early camellias are in bloom before the magnolias and rhododendrons of March and April. By May, the herbaceous shrubs and wisterias spray their beds with vibrant colour, added to by the orchids, irises, ligularias and dahlias of mid-summer. As the sunshine fades, the colours don't; hydrangeas, dierama and phorium flower through September into the late autumn, summing-up a kaleidoscopic feast to be enjoyed for most of the year.

Meander through the treats of this well-designed and well-labelled plantsman's garden and you will be blown-away by its intimate, informative layout, whether you are a horticultural connoisseur or just finding your garden-loving soul. In the case of Ken-Caro, where small is beautiful, this gem of a garden is the ideal size to fertilise your green-fingered passions and leave you wanting more.

Open daily from end February to end September, 10.00am - 5.30pm.