Set in 30 acres of Norfolk parkland, Congham is famous for its herb garden, comprising about 400 varieties, including rare ones. The herbs feature heavily in the hotel’s seasonal cuisine, and in the spa, where they are used in their signature treatments.

This National Trust estate more than lives up the grandeur of the Italianate house. The centrepiece is a magnificent parterre with formal planting. Stroll through the collection of roses, and the long garden designed in 1896 by William Waldorf Astor to show off his classical sculptures.

These Grade II-listed gardens were created by the late Countess of Lonsdale, whose family own this estate. They include a 230ft-long herbaceous border – a blaze of colour and scents in summer – a colourful Jubilee garden planted in 1977, and a pavilion with an antique gypsy caravan.

The vision of a Victorian clergyman, the gardens here are certainly a heavenly prospect. There is, as the hotel says, ‘something for everyone’ to enjoy: formal gardens, a lake, specimen trees, romantic woodland walks (look out for red squirrels and woodpeckers), and a productive kitchen garden.

The influential Irish gardener William Robinson designed these historically important gardens in 1885. In addition to his magical flower garden, there are meadows set with drifts of snow drops and crocuses in winter and native wild flowers in the summer. A kitchen garden and orchard supply the kitchen.

Olga Polizzi’s Regency lodge sits in an Elysian landscape designed by Humphry Repton in the Tamar Valley. The gardens include formal parterres, woodlands, follies and grottoes, and a pergola walkway. There are miles of riverbank to explore, with fairy-tale wooden bridges and dells perfect for a picnic.

It is thought that Gertrude Jekyll may have designed these Edwardian walled gardens, planted to complement Edwin Lutyens’ Arts and Crafts house. Created as a series of ‘rooms’ and vistas, they have radiating pathways and secluded seating areas for shade and afternoon tea.

These five-acre gardens are perennially joyful. The walled garden has a dreamy double-tiered herbaceous border, and there is a rose terrace (where you can dine) and wildflower area. A laburnum arch interwoven with ornamental vines, honeysuckle and clematis leads to a large kitchen garden.

Hadspen House’s grounds are an attraction in their own right. At the core of this 800-acre estate is the Parabola, a walled garden with an apple tree maze, but there is also woodland, a deer park, grotto, orchards and a museum devoted to the story of gardening.

This renowned herb garden, with nearly 400 varieties of herbs, is easy on the eye and sweet on the nose. It has rare varieties such as goat’s rue – once used to treat the plague – along with thymes, sorrels, lavenders and so on. The herbs are used in the kitchen and in the spa’s signature treatments.

This luxury manor house with fine-dining restaurant is on the edge of the Chatsworth Estate. The emphasis in the garden these days is on soil health and a deep connection to the kitchen. There is an arboretum, a summerhouse, sculpture, colour, shape and texture – and it’s full of birds.

Designed by William Robinson – the Irish gardener who pioneered the ’cottage style’ – in 1885, these historic gardens continue to enchant visitors over a century later with their romantic, informal planting and glorious herbaceous borders. The 35 acres also feature a kitchen garden, orchards, meadows and croquet lawn.

Alan Titchmarsh described the gardens here as an ‘Arcadian landscape’. That’s no overstatement. Designed by Humphry Repton in 1811, these Elysian 100-plus acres feature formal planting, woodlands, follies, grottos, streams and bridges, a dell with picnic spots and an arboretum.

The 26 ‘garden rooms’ at this romantic Cotswold country house hotel with Michelin-star restaurant follow the design of Septimus Warwick, an Arts and Crafts enthusiast. Head gardener David Pearce maintains the 12-acre garden according to that ethos. Managed ecologically, it features wild-flower meadows, along with water features and sculptures.

The 17 acres here feature an ‘infinity lawn’ at the front of the house with views of the Aberdeenshire countryside and Grampian mountains, as well as a plethora of shrubs, flowers, walkways, topiary and summerhouses. There is also a small arboretum, rock-pool gardens, and walled kitchen garden.

Completely redesigned in 2014, the gardens have function as well as pleasure in mind – they supply the kitchen. Hidden arbours, pergolas, nooks and crannies, and quirky sculptures are all part of a lovingly tended, productive green space. Some bedrooms open out onto patios with garden views.

The landscaped grounds, covering 55 acres, that surround this Italianate mansion are thought to have inspired Lewis Carroll, and they certainly retain a magical ‘Alice in Wonderland’ quality. You can lose yourself among their secret woodland pathways, lakes with gliding swans, Victorian water cascade, sculptures, flowers and trees.

Famous in their own right, these gardens have been fashioned by generations of talented gardeners, including renowned designer Penelope Hobhouse. At the heart is the Parabola, a walled garden with an apple tree maze; beyond is ancient woodland, including oaks, 70-foot hornbeams, and a 300-year-old ‘Druid Tree’ yew.

A Victorian kitchen garden with glasshouses and potting sheds supplies Jersey Royals and other produce for the restaurant at this manor house hotel. The 18-acre estate also includes a lake, formal gardens, beehives and unspoilt woodland.

The 19th-century visionary gardener William Robinson developed his ideas on wild gardens at his Sussex home. Now eight full-time gardeners are kept busy maintaining Gravetye’s flower garden, meadows, orchards and kitchen garden.

The renowned garden designer Rosemary Verey created the perfect example of an English country garden at her old home, with a laburnum walk, statues and a potager, which supplies the restaurant. There’s even a spa in this magical place.

The Loire’s Château de Villandry was the inspiration behind Ballymaloe’s herb garden, with 70 plant varieties in its formal parterre. It’s one of a number of gardens here, including a Celtic Maze. Tours or gardening courses can be booked.

The Gulf Stream warming this part of the Scottish coast means exotic plants flourish at Glenapp, with its Italian garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll, a walled garden with 150-foot glasshouse, and plenty of picturesque pathways in between.

Raymond Blanc’s Oxfordshire hotel is famed for its food, but also has sculpture- studded gardens, from a mushroom valley and wildflower meadow to a potager, pond and Japanese tea garden. There’s both a gardening school and a cookery school.

At the heart of the flower-filled gardens with small woodland area on this Shropshire estate is the one-acre kitchen garden with herbal walkways. One of the largest in Britain, it supplies an abundance of fresh produce for the restaurant.

The Michelin-starred cuisine tells you they’re serious about food in James and Kate Mackenzie’s pub. Now they have added a garden, with sculptures, hidden arbours, a kitchen garden and a herbarium, where every plant is edible, even the roses.

With parkland designed by Capability Brown, an Italian garden, orangery, arboretum and meerkats menagerie, Castle Ashby’s gardens are pretty impressive. Guests of the Falcon get free access and can swim in the lake in front of the castle.

Love herbs? Congham Hall is right up your patch. With 400 varieties, these beautifully laid-out herb gardens are a popular attraction in their own right. A stroll in the early morning or at dusk is a sensual delight for the eye and nose.

A walk through this 18-acre estate, landscaped by a Victorian clergyman, offers the pleasures of a lake, kitchen garden and woods that are home to red squirrels and woodpeckers. Beyond, country lanes take you into idyllic Jersey scenery.

These historic gardens were designed by William Robinson, the Irish pioneer of the wild garden, in 1885. His spirit lives on in the romantic flower garden, pergola, kitchen garden, orchard and woodland garden.

Humphry Repton’s swan song (his last commission, in 1814), these gardens are as dreamily picturesque as Olga Polizzi’s hotel. Overlooking the Tamar are a formal garden, dell with bridges, arboretum, cottage orné and herbaceous border.

These six-acre gardens are attributed to Gertrude Jekyll and one can sense her hand in the elegant Edwardian design, with its promenades, radiating pathways, rooms and vistas, and perfectly placed spots for sun, shade and privacy.

These 800-acre gardens, comprising cultivated and landscaped areas, deer park, wild flower meadows and woodland, are no pleasing add-on to Hadspen House, but the star of the show. A dedicated museum tells the ‘Story of Gardening’.

Gardens laid out by unsung Edwardian genius Thomas Mawson surround this B&B overlooking Lake Windermere. Here are Mawson’s trademark terraces, lawns, dry-stone walls, glorious plantings, a private tarn in grounds that melt into the landscape.

‘In setting a garden, we are painting,’ wrote William Robinson, who owned this Elizabethan manor from 1884. Disdaining Victorian formality, Robinson favoured a natural style. Discover a wild garden, flower garden, orchard, lake and meadow in 1,000 wooded acres.

Walking trails thread through 28-acre grounds at this 17th-century-cum- Victorian mansion. Explore four acres of kitchen and walled gardens, terraces, a pond, a stream, an apple orchard and fruit garden, beehives, ancient oaks, mighty beeches.

An Arts and Crafts ‘golf box’ designed by Edwin Lutyens stands in gardens attributed to Gertrude Jekyll, with arched gateways in high walls framing views, a sunken croquet lawn, a lavender border, a ha-ha beside Muirfield golf course.

A kitchen garden lies at the heart of every Pig, and this Georgian manor with deer park has the largest, with smokehouse, glasshouse, wild-flower orchard, fruit cages and hives. Enjoy home-grown produce in the Conservatory, spa treatments in a ‘potting shed’.

Come to this Georgian manor house in summer to see the roses. Come at any time to enjoy produce from one of the UK’s largest hotel vegetable gardens, with herb walkway (more than 200 varieties), heritage vegetables and double-tiered herbaceous border.

The owners of this former hunting lodge have created a glorious patchwork on 17 south-facing acres, with a parterre, ornamental ponds, mature trees, statues and topiary, bordering Rutland Water. Lovely in all seasons.

With more than 400 varieties of herbs, the herb garden at this Georgian country house is a great attraction for students of all things culinary and physic, while supplying kitchen and spa. Best experienced with the heady aromas found at dawn or dusk.

Sir Charles Barry’s Italianate mansion overlooking the Thames stands amid pleasure grounds, with a yew maze, rose garden, a Japanese water garden, a parterre laid out by John Fleming, pioneer of ‘carpet bedding’ – and Britain’s most notorious swimming pool.

From 1863, the Rev Christian (aka WB) Bateman landscaped the grounds around this ancient manor house, with lake, specimen trees, kitchen garden. They remain much as he designed them – though with the addition of a pool, jogging trails and spa.

Olga Polizzi’s ducal fishing lodge stands in an 18th-century arcadia laid out by Humphry Repton, with the River Tamar running through. Discover streams, pools, cascades, ravines, a shell house and grotto, and one of England’s longest herbaceous borders.

One of the UK’s largest hotel kitchen gardens, reclaimed from wilderness, supplies the kitchen with a wealth of produce at this Georgian manor house. There is a herb walkway, a walled garden with double-tiered herbaceous border, a riot of colour all summer long.