Dyffryn Gardens - Dyffryn Gardens

Dyffryn Gardens

Today, Dyffryn Gardens is a visitor attraction open all year round. The gardens are accessed via the admissions building, which also houses a shop and an attached tea-room. From here the Gardens are divided into three main areas, the arboretum, Dyffryn House and its lawns and the Garden Rooms.

The eastern and largest section of the gardens contains the arboretum that begins with the heather bank, leading to the rockery. The central section, which divides the arboretum in the east from the Garden Rooms to the west, contains Dyffryn House and its lawns, beginning with the house to the north extending southwards to the Vine Walk, a series of arches each containing a different species of vine. The two main lawns include the croquet lawn, closest to Dyffryn House, which runs east to west parallel to the main building, and the Great Lawn. The Great Lawn runs north-south and at its centre a longitudinal canal, which has at its centre a large bronze fountain. The fountain is in Chinese style and has a bronze Chinese Dragon wrapped around it; thought to be from the 1950s. The Great Lawn ends with a lily pond, which houses two more impressive bronze statues, a pair of Oriental wind demons. At the southern end of the lawns is the Vine Walk, and Lavender Garden, the later containing a red brick folly.

The final section of the gardens is the Garden Rooms, a series of terraced themed gardens. The "rooms" contain an Italian Terrace, Australian and Mediterranean Gardens, each containing plants from their respective regions. Other areas include a physic garden, rose garden, reflecting pool and Pompeian gardens. The Pompeian gardens, entered via an archway dated 1909, were originally inspired by Reginald Cory's trips to Italy.

Throughout the gardens are a number of statues, many with a motif of people with animals. Of the more notable works are a life-size prone stone lion, a terracotta statue of a palm-bearing female, signed "E. Kuhse", (1881) of German origin and to the rear of the house outside the visitor centre is a large bronze of a mandarin riding a bull.

The gardens offer a great variety of colour and form throughout the seasons. Then summer sees the newly restored garden rooms in bloom. In autumn the many acers and the vine are in season.