Introducing the Gardens

Situated two miles north-east of the historic market town of Romsey in the county of Hampshire, southern England, the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens (formerly known as the Hillier Arboretum) are named in memory of their founder, the late Sir Harold Hillier (1905-1985), a member of the nursery family.

In June 1953, the Hillier family took up residence in Jermyn's House, and Sir Harold set about transforming the land around his home into the internationally renowned collection of hardy trees and shrubs we have today. In 1977, nearly twenty-five years after the first plantings, Sir Harold gave his plant collection to Hampshire County Council to be held by them as a charitable trust. It is their commitment that has helped to develop the unique collection of some 42,000 plants (12,000 different types) which now thrive in an area of 180 acres.

Visitors to the Gardens will find something to interest them throughout the year. Frosty days of January, with the perfume of the witch hazels' strange spidery flowers filtering through the Gardens, gradually change to the flamboyant blooms of the spring flowering camellias, magnolias, rhododendrons and azaleas. These are followed by the heady scents of summer's flowering shrubs and herbaceous plants before the autumn season of fiery hues.

In 1997 the Gardens were included by English Heritage on the Register of Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England for the value of the plant collections. These collections continue to be enhanced and developed, and now boast the largest Winter Garden of its kind in Europe and the Gurkha Memorial Garden with an extensive collection of Nepalese plants.

Click here to find out more about Sir Harold Hillier. 

View more photographs of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens

Visit The Gurkha Museum in Winchester

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