The story of the rediscovery of the Lost Gardens of Heligan just over 30 years ago has all the ingredients and romance of a modern-day Sleeping Beauty: a brave prince battles through impenetrable thorns to awaken a beautiful princess who has fallen asleep for nearly 80 years. He rouses her with a kiss and they live happily ever after.
The princess – Heligan – was once one of Cornwall’s finest estates, whose exotic gardens had been “lost” in 1914 when the estate’s workforce of gardeners marched off to war – many never returning. The prince was Dutch-born archaeologist and musician Sir Tim Smit who would later found the Eden Project. But it was an unlikely set of events that led to Tim’s role in reawakening Heligan’s famous gardens, packed with magnificent plant finds from the furthest corners of the globe and, in its heyday, renowned as a feat of Victorian plantsmanship and engineering.
