Coach Parties and Organised Visits...
Plant World gardens and rare plant nursery is a favourite venue for garden clubs, horticultural societies and garden lovers.
Groups travel from all over the country to spend an enjoyable day with us.
Inspirational gardens from around the world contain a selection of rare
and exotic plants seldom seen outside their native lands. Choice plants
seen in the gardens may be bought in the nursery – a treasure trove of sought-after plants.
Plant World is the culmination of a plantsman’s vision holding a lifetime’s collection and has
been featured many times on the BBC’s Gardeners’ World, ITV’s Gardens For All, Channel 4’s Bloom and others.
Filming for Gardeners' World
Our Superb Location
In 1985 Ray Brown decided to move his plant nursery from the Scottish Highlands
and was searching for somewhere warmer to grow and display his large collection
of rare and unusual hardy plants he had slowly accumulated. He decided on this
magnificent spot high in the hills between Torquay and Newton Abbot in beautiful
South Devon. This slowly became the first ever garden constructed and correctly
planted as the countries of the world. Representing each of the five continents,
the gardens offer an extensive collection of indigenous trees, shrubs and flowers.
Many of the plants were donated to the Eden Project during its construction. Indeed,
the four acres of landscaped gardens are often called Devon’s “Little Outdoor Eden”.
A large mature cottage garden and Mediterranean garden completes the collection.
The numerous steps in the lower levels of our hillside garden make it unsuitable
for wheelchairs although the nursery is on one level. Magnificent views over the Teign
Valley, from Dartmoor to the sea, provide the incredible backdrop to what will
be an unforgettable visit.
Our Nursery
The plant nursery is well-stocked, predominantly with shrubs and herbaceous plants, with the emphasis on the rare and unusual
To enable us to keep prices low many of our smaller plants are not individually labelled,
but we give out DIY labelling kits at the nursery entrance, so do please make use
of this facility if needed.
Viewpoint Café & Shop
We have an attractive new café and shop with fabulous views, and we are proud of our clean and excellent facilities
Snacks, light lunches, drinks, cream teas and delicious home-made cakes are available along
with other locally-made food products. We use soup from Rod and Ben’s Organic Soups based in
Kenn; our chutneys are hand-made by Mrs G’s Ravishing Relishes in Torquay; our fudge comes
from Suzi Sweet-tooth in Bideford and our bottled drinks come from Heron Valley. There is
also a nearby quiet area for you to enjoy your picnic.
Prices and Offers
Prices for garden admission are: Day tickets £3.00, Season tickets £10.00.
If you are arriving with a large coach party then please contact us to make
arrangements for food food - we can also offer a special meal deal We
request that trip organisers please collect all ticket money before arrival
to help prevent congestion in our shop. If someone could ring us shortly before
arrival then we shall earnestly endeavour to have someone available to jump onto
the coach and welcome you to Plant World. You can phone us on 01803 872939.
Opening Times
We are open 9.30 a.m. – 5.00 p.m., seven days a week, from late March through to mid October.
If you would like to visit as a group we would be grateful if you could confirm in writing
at least two weeks in advance. If this is not possible you are obviously most welcome to
make a visit without booking. We recommend a minimum of an hour and a half to see the
gardens and nursery, although very keen gardeners often spend the day here. Visiting groups
often split a day by combining a visit here with another garden nearby, e.g. Hill House at
Landscove (10 miles), the famous Edward Hyams garden and nursery (Tel: 01803 762273), or
Burnham Orchid Nursery at Forches Cross (4 miles) (Tel: 01626 352233).
Coach Drivers:
Please ignore the “coach restriction” signs on our road which is wide and safe.
This does not apply to vehicles trying to access us, being only a legal deterrent
to heavy vehicles which use our country road as a short cut to Torquay.
Please swing in through our gates to the left before reversing back to
the “Coach Parking” sign on the right.
We look forward to meeting you and sharing our lovely gardens with you.
We look forward to meeting you and sharing our lovely gardens with you.