Best Sussex Gardens

West Dean Gardens is one of the greatest restored gardens open to the public today. Open year round, a visit here will see you exploring a sunken garden, marvelling at a walled kitchen garden bursting with produce, discovering secret flint bridges and admiring a 300ft Edwardian pergola. You’ll survey the impressive variety of colour always on display in the collection of thirteen working Victorian glasshouses, which under the eye of Head Gardener Tom Brown, boast exotic plants and orchids, strawberries, figs, nectarines, peaches, and a variety of other fruits. An arboretum sits at the top of the hill and is perfect for stretching your legs before enjoying the on-site cafe.

Look out for West Dean’s Garden Tour and Cream Tea events which take place most months. These are your chance to get expert insight into key areas of the garden. During the tour, seasonal highlights will be explored and explained, and you’ll also get behind-the-scenes access to the new market gardens as well as Oak Hall, where cream tea will be served. Also keep your eyes peeled for Garden Tours and special events.

Image: Laburnum Vossii at West Dean Gardens by Trevor Sims

Woolbeding Gardens is located amongst the Sussex countryside just outside Midhurst in the South Downs National Park. A masterpiece of colour and design, you’ll can lose hours exploring this constantly evolving horticultural haven.

From garden rooms to surprising sculptures and follies, this garden delights at every turn. Feel transported as you explore the variety of formal gardens and informal pleasure grounds culminating in glorious views of the River Rother and beyond. The garden was initially developed by American garden designer Lanning Roper, then Julian and Isabel Bannerman.

Spring 2022 saw the opening of a new, much-anticipated Hetherwick Studio designed glasshouse and Silk Route garden.

Woolbeding Gardens are open on selected days only from Thursday 24 April to the end of September 2025. Tickets must be booked in advance and includes transfer to the Gardens by minibus from the centre of Midhurst, just a few minutes drive away.

Image: National Trust Images

The award-winning* exquisite gardens at Arundel Castle are truly a sight to behold. Open from 1st April to 2nd November 2025, there’s so much to see here. From tropical and English gardens to the quirky Stumpery; glasshouses bursting with produce, and a fragrant rose garden, these are gardens which dazzle with floral delights. In April 2025, the annual Tulip Festival will see the grounds burst into blazes of colour as up to a million tulips put on an outstanding show. Or visit in May 2025 to witness the ‘fireworks of gardening’ at The 2025 Allium Extravaganza where thousands of alliums will burst into bloom with their vibrant, pom-pom-shaped heads. These really are gardens fit for a king and are a must-see for any garden lover. Visits can be pre-booked in advance or just arrive on the day.

*Most recently, Arundel Castle gardens won Historic Park & Garden of the Year 2024 and the new Horticultural Achievement Award 2024 at South & South East In Bloom and was Gold Winner for Small Conservation Area of the Year 2024 for the water gardens, and Gold for the Walled Gardens category.

Image: The Drone Awakens

Located in Fontwell near Arundel, Denmans Garden is a garden where peace and tranquillity reign, and will fire inspiration for gardening enthusiasts.

Open year round, this contemporary country garden is home to surprising planting combinations, meandering paths, gravel gardens and water features. You’ll discover quiet places to sit and enjoy the stunning surroundings that evolve with the seasons. Originally transformed from a market garden to an ornamental garden by plantswoman Joyce Robinson in 1970, Denmans was taken on in the 1980s by John Brookes MBE, a garden and landscape designer often credited as the “man who made the modern garden”.

Advance booking for this highly significant garden is advised. Be sure to visit the plant centre to bring some of your garden inspiration home!

Petworth House‘s stunning grounds are the work of legendary landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. During the 1750s and 60s Brown transformed the formal gardens to create the majestic lakes and wide open, natural looking spaces you see in the park today. 
Closer to the house, in the Pleasure Grounds, which are also the work of Capability Brown, you will find winding paths which showcase the informal, seasonal planting. Visit here in spring, particularly during the Spring Festival and you'll be treated to a display of golden daffodils, paths lined with blossom, rhododendrons or even a sea of blue as the bluebells raise their heads. Stop for a while at the iconic Rotunda or Doric Temple and appreciate stunning Sussex views. 

There’s no need to pre-book to visit here, simply buy your ticket or show your National Trust membership card on the day.

Accessed via a heavy oak door in the grounds of the imposing Cowdray Ruins at the Cowdray Estate in Midhurst, The Walled Garden is a hidden gem in the heart of the South Downs National Park. The garden hosts weddings and events but is open for visits when booking an afternoon tea, available on selected dates during the summer as well as occasional dates for Mothering Sunday and Easter.

Inside you’ll be surrounded by the sound of birds chirping in the trees, the scent of lavender and roses in the air, splashes of colour from alliums, lupins, a fragrant herb garden and apple, pear, cherry and walnut trees.  It's thought that ‘Capability’ Brown was involved in the design and planning of the garden, which today offers a truly hidden retreat. Pre-booking is required for your afternoon tea visit.

Image: The Walled Garden, Cowdray Estate, Midhurst

Hidden away within the grounds of Chichester Cathedral, just a short walk from Chichester’s bustling streets lies Bishops Palace Garden.

Free to visit, this haven is an unexpected space in the city centre, featuring abundant planting, luscious trees and offering outstanding views of the Cathedral. This is undoubtedly a great spot to while away a few hours with a picnic on a warm day – pick up a feast from Cloisters  Kitchen & Garden in the Cathedral grounds or from nearby The Barn Little London or Luckes before exploring the historic Cathedral itself.

Bishops Palace Gardens, Chichester

You’ll find Uppark House & Garden in an enviably elevated position in the South Downs National Park, with outstanding views across the Sussex countryside. The glorious gardens here are the work of ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton, who were commissioned around 1810 by Uppark’s owner Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh.

Reopening late July 2025 following closure for essential maintenance, you can now visit Uppark in different ways. Admission to enjoy the gardens is now free of charge, with donations to the National Trust welcomed. You'll be able to wander the grounds, exploring the Amphitheatre and scented gardens where each season brings a wealth of colour and interest as well as visiting the cafe, sitting with your drinks to admire the breathtaking views to the South Downs and beyond.

You can visit the house on a guided tour, allowing you to explore the stories of the house, it's treasures and cast of characters. Booking is advised for this.

Image: National Trust images

At the heart of Stansted Park‘s 1800 acres of parkland and ancient forest stands an Edwardian Mansion, former home of the Ponsonby family. Surrounding the house you will discover a charming walled garden, with its popular tearoom (where we highly recommend a coffee stop) the Dutch Garden, Arboretum and Yew Maze.

On site is also a Farm Shop, Garden Centre, and Miniature Railway. The surrounding grounds lead on to walks exploring the woods and avenues of the magnificent parkland. Stansted Park is also home to a programme of annual events including The South Downs Food Festival in early June, The Stansted Summer Festival, taking place on 19th and 20th July 2025, Prom in the Park on 9th August 2025 and Teajazz in the Park on 10th August 2025.There’s no charge to visit the garden, but visits to the house can be booked here*.

*Please note that the house usually closes for Winter, with tours starting again in Spring.

Image: Stansted Park

Open on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays and Bank Holidays between 20th April and 12th October 2025, Parham House sits in a stunning location amid the majestic South Downs. Step inside to discover bewitching Parham with its elegant Elizabethan manor and eleven acres of gardens.

Explore a four-acre Walled Garden, herbaceous borders filled with swathes of flowers, a historic greenhouse, vegetable garden, orchard, and an intriguing 1920s Wendy House. The gardens supply the vast array of floral displays inside the house which are not to be missed. The stunning sprawling pleasure ground comes to life in spring when visitors can admire a sea of snowdrops, daffodils and other wildflowers.

Visit on 6th July to make the most of The Plant Fairs Roadshow where the South East’s best specialist nurseries will be selling a wide range of locally grown and unusual plants at Parham, the 12th July for the Sussex Steam Rally, or on 3rd August when you can admire Jaguars on display near the entrance to the house and gardens, for Parham’s Jaguar Day.

Today our gardens are mostly for enjoyment, relaxation or entertainment, but in contrast, historically personal gardens were wholly practical. Usefulness was the name of the game, not aesthetics when it came to planting gardens in the 16th Century, and you can see this in the seven recreated period gardens at Weald & Downland Living Museum. See how gardens were planted with vegetables and produce to be eaten, or medicinal herbs and flowers, and how that slowly transitioned to have more focus on image.

The Weald & Downland Living Museum hosts a full calendar of events throughout the year, allowing you to visit the gardens during different seasons. 2025 highlights include Mothering Sunday, Easter Through the Ages, Saxon Week, Father’s Day, Victorian Life – Living on the Edge, and the annual Tree Dessing celebration.

Located in Apuldram, near Chichester, Rymans Garden is a private garden that occasionally opens its doors to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme. One of the area’s best kept secrets by a country mile, here you’ll find bulbs, flowering shrubs, roses, ponds, and potager, alongside unusual and rare trees and shrubs. Visit in late spring to admire the wisterias, whilst in June, hybrid musk roses fill the walled garden. The garden transforms once again in the late summer months when dahlias, sedums, late roses, sages and Japanese anemones come into bloom.

Rymans Garden’s Open Days in collaboration with The National Garden Scheme are on 12th April, 13th April, 22nd June and 14th September 2025. Visits can be made by prior arrangement between April and 20th September for groups of up to 25. You can see more gardens participating in the National Garden Scheme in West Sussex here.