"Basia" wrote in message
...
I'll probably be visiting UK next summer, with a small group of friends,
all
very gardening-oriented Could you please suggest some very worthwhile
gardens to visit, in the radius of 250 kms from Ipswitch? We are
interested
in public gardens or botanic gardens mostly. So far we have chosen 5
places - Sissinghurst, RHS garden in Wisley, Hyde Hall, Barnsdale, Beth
Chatto gardens. Anything else?

Barbara,

not sure which country you are coming from but a range of 250kms (about 155
miles) is not what I would initially think of as 'in and around Suffolk'. It
stretches quite a long way beyond the county boundary :-)
In and around would, I think, be more like 50km. Suffolk is not a large
county.
155 miles would take you, for example, to West Berkshire and nearly into
Wiltshire.
I assume you are planning to travel by car - going by train is a whole
different ball game.

[I live in Felixstowe, which is very close to Ipswich but nearer to the
sea.]

Is this distance an absolute, or are you using this as a measure of time
taken to travel?
Are you looking to go there and back in a day?
This would be about 3 hours travel each way depending on when and where you
were going.

For anything on the 'other side' of London from Ipswich e.g. Kent or Sussex
you will have to go round the M25, sometimes known as "the biggest car park
in Europe".
If you are trying to do the trip in a day then you will have to start very
early (possibly 05:30) to avoid the daily rush hour which ties up the M25
from about 07:00 to 09:30.
Plan on returning after 18:30 to 19:00 to avoid the evening rush hour.
Otherwise add at least an hour to your journey time each way.
Don't even consider travelling on Friday.

It might be useful to use Google Maps to get an idea where you can get to -
for example Nottingham is 141 miles from Ipswich with an estimated
travelling time of 2 hours 45 minutes.
The centre of England is easy to get to from Ipswich because of the A14
which takes you across towards Birmingham and joins the A1(M)/A1 then the M1
and the M6.
This can make places which seem further away much more accessible.
If you travel anywhere which is not connected by good fast roads then your
travel time could be a great deal longer (e.g. north of Norwich or a large
part of Lincolnshire).

I must say that doing 300 miles in a day on British roads and taking in one
or more gardens is hard core.

On the other hand if you are going out for more than one day then there are
places such as the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project which could
justify a much longer journey.

Adrian Bloom's place in Bressingham is worth a visit.

Hope this helps you - you may well be already fully aware of the issues.

Cheers

Dave R