Glendurgan began as a private garden nearly 200 years ago, in a near frost-protected sanctum off the Helford River in Cornwall. The botanical haven is cultivated along four valleys rolling below the manor home built by the originator of a successful shipping firm and continued by a long line of international diplomats. Glendurgan's flora increased over decades of family importing until six generations later, the garden lands were given to the National Trust to ensure the treasure will live on and be open for all to visit.

Floral color is at its height in springtime with ancient camellia and rhododendrons mounds watching over dainty blooms along the trails. Above them, tropical sentries of palm trees, tree ferns and bamboos rise even higher to confuse the notion of being in an 'English Garden'. All precepts fall to devise another mental file and it is 'Cornish Gardening'. In summer, the rain forest glen is rich in architectural plant structure and foliage hues, enormous growths provoking a surreal sense of being within a fairy tale story. This is the alluring spell of a successful garden, one which takes us to another place and time, a better one than from whence we came.

Trails through sheltering trees of lime, beech, sycamore, oak, ash, conifers and massive jungle fronds eventually lead us to a clearing illuminating the tropical pond. Its neighboring sunny knoll stages an exquisitely maintained labyrinth maze of laurel, planted in 1833. Here the jungle meets a more tended garden to lure us into another magical venture, to find our way in and then our way out of the jolly green trap. Further trekking through subtropical valleys of enchanting paths gradually reveal all of Glendurgan's features within the 25 acres: the Camellia Walk, Cherry Orchard, Manderson's Hill, the Pond below the Maze, the Lower Valley, Birches Orchard, the Giant's Stride, the School Room Walk, the Holy Bank, and the Valley Head. The rolling terrain slopes down to meet Durgan Village, a hamlet of about twenty fisherman's cottages, some now owned by the National Trust and available for transitory holiday stays. Across the river lies Frenchman's Creek to inspire another mental journey based on the writing of that name and locale, by novelist Daphne du Maurier

The family home is still resided in by members of the last two generations. We were honored to be invited to view the verdant valleys from the house, overlooking this glorious glen. Turning on the time machine, a spectator could conjure images of being there in another time when ladies of leisure and arts, and gentlemen of politics and industry held weekend house parties where much of the guest's amusement was found while wandering through this piece of Eden.