Greenway

Garden Overview

There are some 35 acres of garden at Greenway surrounded by over 300 acres of parkland, farm and woodland. The garden holds a rich collection of trees and plants collected over many generations of owners. It is a steep woodland garden running down to the water’s edge of the River Dart.

Being on a promontory, Greenway is surrounded by large hills with no roads within hearing range. It is easy to find a spot within the garden overlooking the river and hear nothing but birds singing and the occasional river boats passing or the whistle from the nearby steam train. The estate was gifted to the National Trust in the year 2000 by Mr. and Mrs. Hicks and Mr. Pritchard (Mrs. Hicks was Agatha Christies daughter and Mr. Pritchard her grandson).

The garden has a long history. In 1832, the Carlyon’s started planting Greenway after taking ownership with substantial orders being placed with the Veitch nurseries. These included many camellias and rhododendrons. In 1852, the Harvey’s bought Greenway and were responsible for building glasshouses in the two walled gardens, continued planting of specimen trees and adding a fernery garden. Thomas Bolitho moved to Greenway in 1882 and he continued adding Camellias, Rhododendrons, Magnolias, Acacias and Monterey pines. After his death in 1919, his daughter, Mary, married Charles Williams of Caerhays. They took ownership and prolific planting began with plants from Caerhays’ nursery including some original introductions from George Forrest’s early expeditions to Yunnan (China). In 1938, it was bought by author Agatha Christie and her husband Professor Sir Max Mallowan. They continued with the garden’s development by sourcing plants from Veitch, Treseder and Hillier’s nurseries. The estate was sold to Mrs. Hicks (Agatha’s daughter) in 1959, and her husband Anthony set up and ran a small commercial nursery from the walled gardens. In the year 2000 the estate was gifted to the National Trust; both Mr. and Mrs. Hicks continued to live here until they had both passed away by 2005.

Our Camellias

Greenway features around 200 camellia varieties. Camellia japonica and Williamsii hybrids are the majority of the camellias in the garden. The visitor can also admire hybrids of Camellia reticulata and of other species. A sample of 11 wild camellia species is included in the collection