Breezy Knees Gardens — Attraction in Warthill

Breezy Knees is one of the largest gardens in Northern England with over 20 acres of award winning gardens, packed with more than 10,000 different varieties of flowers, shrubs and trees, and designed through careful successional planting to be at their best throughout the summer. They feature extensive herbaceous borders, sparkling fountains, rose gardens, annual meadows, special May, June and September Gardens, a lake and arboretum plus much more. Come and see why Monty Don described them as "a beautiful modern garden created on the grandest possible scale"

And don't miss the specialist perennial nursery with many rare plants, lots of recent introductions and definitely loads your neighbours won't have. And everything sold can be seen growing in the gardens, having been tested by whatever the Yorkshire weather has thrown at them.

Gardens Vibrant borders, sparkling fountains and a myriad of blossom awaits you at Breezy Knees Gardens. Now covering over 20 acres they are one of the largest gardens in the North of England and with over 10,000 different varieties of plants to discover, there’s always lots to see, with the extensive borders that form the heart of the gardens giving a succession of flowers all the way through from May to the end of September.

There is always plenty of interest with somewhere always at it's peak. There are areas which change relatively little throughout the year, such as the White Rose Fountains, several oversized sculptures, like the giant wellies, the Conifer Garden, with it's collection of both large and dwarf conifers, Stonehedge (a topiary version of stonehenge) and the Lake & Arboretum. And then there's the main borders, planted to give constant interest all through our opening period. These include the long Double Border, the Lawned Garden and the Raised Bed Garden.

Complementing these are a series of seasonal highlights, starting in May and June with the tranquillity of the Pond and Shade Garden, large collections of irises and peonies, both the special May and June Gardens and the Rock Garden, all with their mass of early summer blooms. By mid-summer the annual meadow is at its best, the Cottage Garden brimming with colour and the Rose Garden full of fragrance. Through August the main borders remain a riot of colour and finally, the special September Garden, with its late season blooms, will be at it's peak as the summer draws to a close.

Last, but certainly not least, there are areas not only for everyone to enjoy, but also of special interest to keen gardeners. The Rabbit Path, so-called because unlike the rest of the garden has no protection against rabbits , or deer, yet flourishes despite. And the Rogues Gallery looks wonderful although full of horticultural thugs.

There really is always lots to see, so why not...

It's unfortunate that the Covid pandemic has allowed the management to lose focus on the needs of its visitors and possibly claim lack of staff, but not garden volunteers!! We queued 3 times for the cafe but gave up after 20mins as the queue did not move and only one person exited. It was hot that day. In between times we did the rounds of the gardens. Focus is on serving food not customers. In the afternoon when the food experience eased off we did manage to get in a lesser queue and found the reason for the delay. Only one person taking orders, making coffee, serving coffee accompaniments, taking payments etc. Card payments were slowing things down, either poor internet connection or mobile signal. The cash of an elderly dear was refused, she had to find her card. There was no sign to show this procedure. The ladies toilets were in good demand but not cleaned regularly and mid afternoon, the staff were informed that the soap had expired. It was not duly attended to. There are no toilets in the gardens themselves, a true oversight when considerable expense has been used to create the gardens and the new (to us) lake. The hike to the gardens would take a pensioner a good 20-30mins and the same again to get back to the toilet facility. There are few benches in the gardens for rest stops, its very easy to spend 2-3 hours. Several of the benches had copious amounts of bird droppings, difficult to control I know but at the same time we saw at least 3 gardeners/volunteers busy in the areas, weeding and planting. The hike to the gardens would take a pensioner a good 30-40mins and the same again to get back to the toilet facility. In contrast, car parking...

The gardens are worth the full 5 stars absolutely gorgeous well kept incredibly beautiful!! We took our time and so much space to explore. What let it down for us was front of house - I was served by someone new she was friendly and took our order but when waiting to be told the payment had gone through she started chatting to a colleague and I was left standing there holding the tray, she gave me a quick thumbs up but I felt put out. The egg Mayo sandwich gluten free (the bread was nice) the egg Mayo seemed to have salad cream mixed in too which I don’t normally mind and I really am not a fussy person but I couldn’t finish it I couldn’t taste the egg at all just the sauce/sauces We were shown the map and a small description of the gardens and felt happy to continue the visit (again absolutely beautiful gardens) As we were leaving we walked through the same way we came in, the same lady who greeted us was chatting to a colleague - we caught her eye and she turned away and carried on chatting I was hoping for a goodbye thanks for coming or something similar - I equally was opening my mouth to say it was amazing thank you but her quick turn around like we were not worth the time for a quick goodbye / thank you - it’s the small things sometimes that really make a place especially front of house - especially when the gardeners were more friendly than said front of house

Visit the gardens I bet they are gorgeous whatever time of year, I will visit again but I suppose I shall remember it’s not a chatty place for customers to hear their experience...