Today, the gardens include huge tropical borders, intricate knot gardens, copious topiary, fantastical architecture, and theatrical water features.

Carol visits Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk, home of the Bloom dynasty of Norfolk horticulturists who introduced British gardeners to a wealth of plants and devised a revolutionary way to display them. Carol spends time with Adrian Bloom, whose ethos is to introduce the very best examples of plants that will grace even a tiny garden.

Carol visits the garden of a 16th-century manor house, Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire, a beautiful and intricate four-acre oasis in the English garden tradition. With its traditional craftsmanship, sympathetic architecture, elegant topiary and hedges, and deep borders, it looks like it's been here for 100 years, but owners Lesley and John only bought the property in 1983, and since then have set about recapturing the spirit and quality of a bygone era.