Garden Open: mid March - end May: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays, 10:30 - 5 pm (CLOSED Mon,
Tues and Sat)
June - end August: Wednesdays 1 pm - 4:30 pm
Admission: Adults £5.00, children free
Groups by arrangement
Enquiries
Mr Tom Hudson, Tregrehan, Par, Cornwall PL24 2SJ
Phone/ fax: 00 44 (0) 1726 814389
Shop and facilities: tea and coffee, snacks.
We do not supply lunches but you can bring your picnic basket. WC suitable for disabled. Parking for cars and coaches. No dogs in
the garden.
Nursery open during garden open hours and by appointment anytime. Specialising in rare and unusual plants of species
origin propagated from the garden. Professional advice available.
A small history of the garden.
In a letter to Jovey Carlyon
from Gilbert Rogers a Cornish forester based in India at Dehra Dun, N.W.Provinces, dated 1st July 1894 -
" My dear Carlyon,
It is so hot down here that I find it impossible to write decently. I only came down from the hills yesterday… I am writing
to tell you that I have sent you a box containing some seeds of Quercus semecarpifolia in charcoal … the acorns may have all germinated
on the way as they germinate here almost as soon as they fall to the ground but I hope that some of them, if they have germinated,
will reach you alive. This species of oak covers the highest hills in Yarmsa & grows at elevations above the spruce
& mixed with the silver fir, so should do well with you. It is very hardy grows very slowly & makes a fine tall straight
stem if grown in close canopy…. "
This oak now stands proud at 25m height at Tregrehan. Veteran trees, oak and sweet chestnut
survive since the first half of the 1600's in the Park. Tregrehan garden is a woodland garden rich in exotic plants collected
by enthusiasts from the early 19th century. This 20 acre woodland garden concentrating on species from temperate regions
has been described as Cornwall's temperate rainforest. Consequently she is an important green gene bank of known source
plants.
This tradition continues with Tom Hudson today, whose own collection of rare and unusual plant specimens
begins to fill the void beneath Tregrehan's majestic 19th century botanical heritage.
1565 Tregrehan became home to the
Carlyon family
1680 the construction of Tregrehan House was begun by Thomas Carlyon, possibly the first double-pile house in
Cornwall and continued by his son, also Thomas.
1734 Philip Carlyon, successful mining entrepreneur, also had horticultural interests
selling laurels, elms and oaks in 1738 and also 'planting up the moor by the Whitewater with 264 trees, larch, fir, walnut, chestnut
and beech'. Philip's son died childless leaving the estate to his nephew Thomas IV.
1770 - 1854 Zenith of the families
wealth and influence rapidly growing on the back of the Industrial Revolution. This had the greatest effect on the landscvape
and house and firmly established the family in society.
The landscape was contrived during the hey-day of the Picturesque period
whereby landscape should be constructed as a picture with foreground, middle ground and distant views. Thomas IV chose
a Reptonian apprroach at Tregrehan. Repton, of the picturesque school, was popular with the Cornish gentry of which Carlyon
desired to be associated., which allowed for a productive, tenanted landscape. Remnants of this design are seen in the western drive.
The more revolutionary 'natural' landscapes proposed were thought to do with a more violent order associated with the revolution of
France.
The barns and a dairying complex were developed with some ornamentation fashionable at the time. Thomas's son
William built the Stable block and may have started conifer planting. His younger brother Edward Carlyon, who bought Greenway
on the Banks of the Dart, inherited Tregrehan on his brother's early death in 1841. William suffered some form of dementia in
his final years and was labelled a lunatic. Colonel Edward Carlyon moved with his family back to Tregrehan following a complete
refurbishment of the house and landscape. Architect George Wightwick redesigned the house as a stately home in 1842 in classical
style with Ionic colonnade.
1844 The walled garden was remodelled to become one from two separate gardens
and the extensive glasshouses stretching 128ft were erected.
1845 Edward employed noted gardenesque architect William Nesfield
and together they designed the entrance court, parterre and probably the Yew walk. Nesfields involvement in the wider landscape
is uncertain. However the design followed his intentions with major view lines running from the parterre in picturesque tradition
with ill defined park boundaries, creating an illusion of infinity. Before Edwards death he gave the land and paid for the construction
of the church and steeple at St Blazey which form the Bastion view. He created the formal drive to the beach at Crinnis and
negotiated the construction of the ornamental bridge with the Cornwall Railway.
Edward also was a keen gardener.
He purchased form Veitch's for whom the Lobb brothers collected (including the monkey puzzle). The Hooker rhododendrons were
an introduction at this time, evident from Edwards account books.
1850's Thomas Tristrem Carlyon attached the ornamental
piggery to the southern side of the barn which survives today as a courtyard garden
1880 - 1894 Jovey Carlyon continued with
the planting of his grandfather (his father George emmigrated to New Zealand) and founded a large part of the present collection.
Over 13 nurseries supplied the garden in the 1980's, with records of species type, provenance, position and sometimes condition.
1914 Professor Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum stated " Tregrehan is the best thing of its kind in the world"
1916
W.J. Bean visited from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and published a detailed article about 'The Arboretum at Tregrehan' , noting
fine examples of rhododendrons and was especially taken by the conifer collection.
1935 Carlyon family absent from the estate
when Rupert Carlyon, Jovey's nephew, returned from New Zealand. Rupert imported a large amount of material particularly the
newer rhododendron hybrids
1960's Gillian Carlyon (Rupert's daughter) began a major camellia breeding programme producing many
of the hybrids still in collection today.
1987 Tom Hudson (Gillian's cousin) continues planting
