Great Gardens of Sussex is a brand new partnership which was launched today by Nicholas Soames at Borde Hill Garden in Haywards Heath. The partnership has been set up by a group of Sussex gardens including Borde Hill Garden, Nymans Garden, High Beeches Gardens, Leonardslee Gardens and Wakehurst Place and is supported by Mid Sussex District Council.

The organisations formed the partnership to promote the outstandingly beautiful and varied gardens in the area. Nicholas Soames is an enthusiastic supporter and he was the guest of honour at today’s launch, which coincides with the inaugural British Tourism Week.

Commenting on the launch of great Gardens of Sussex, Nicholas Soames, said: “The gardens of Mid Sussex are magnificent, they are part of our history and our future and I hope that everyone will take the opportunity to find out for themselves just how wild, green and pure they are and above all, how very beautiful they are.”

Great Gardens of Sussex aims to highlight the uniquely rich gardening culture in the heart of Sussex and to encourage visitors to explore each garden by following the Great Gardens of Sussex Garden Trail. Each garden is displaying maps to show how close the gardens are (less than 15 minutes drive apart) and literature is also available.

The first promotion of the Great Gardens of Sussex group is Chinese Plant Week, 2-7 May 2007, which will be followed by Chilean Plant Week, 23-28 May 2007. During these weeks the gardens will combine their expertise to celebrate plants in their collections from China and Chile.

Borde Hill Garden, High Beeches Gardens, Nymans Garden, Leonardslee Gardens and Wakehurst Place are among the most beautiful and well-designed gardens in the country. They also contain some of the world’s finest botanical collections. The gardens are located in the heart of Mid Sussex, in the Sussex High Weald. Situated just off the M/A23 and close to the M25, they are easy to access from London and the south east.

The history of the gardens dates back to the late 19th century when all were founded by pioneering plantsmen of the time. Borde Hill Garden, with a botanically rich heritage, comprises an immense diversity of plant species contained in a series of ‘garden rooms’ with magnificent parkland views. High Beeches Gardens is a spectacularly beautiful woodland and water garden, full of rare and unusual plants and trees. It also has the finest wildflower meadow in Sussex.

Nymans Garden offers vivid splashes of colour, shapely topiary and a great variety of plants, which all come together to form one of the great garden designs. Leonardslee Gardens uses its steep north-south running valley to provide fantastic scope for sheltering its amazing paradise of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and camellias. Wakehurst Place, Kew’s country garden and home of conservation, has a magnificent collection of plants from around the world and offers year-round delights. It is also home to the world renowned Millennium Seed Bank Project.

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This unique collection of Sussex gardens comprises: Borde Hill Garden, High Beeches Gardens, Nymans Garden, Leonardslee Gardens and Wakehurst Place, and is a partnership project with Mid Sussex District Council

British Tourism Week runs from 12 to 18 March 2007. More information can be found at www.britishtourismweek.com.