After a year off due to the coronavirus pandemic, Queen Elizabeth is once again offering guests a chance to visit the gardens at Buckingham Palace this summer.
The Palace traditionally opens its ground to the public for three months every summer and, for the first time ever, this year it will also allow people to picnic on the lawns. Visitors are invited to partake in a self-guided tour that will lead them through the gardens and around the 3.5-acre lake. There are also additional guided tours that will allow guests to visit the Rose Garden, wildflower meadow, and summer house located in the southwest part of the property.
While the gardens are only officially open from July 9 to September 19, those who want to view the grounds in springtime are able to book guided tours on the weekends in April and May to take in the blooming primroses, bluebells, flowering camellia, magnolia and azalea shrubs, as well as some of the rare native plants the property is known for. The Palace is famed for its wide array of plant life, with 320 wildflowers and grasses, more than 1,000 trees, and the National Collection of Mulberry Trees.
Buckingham Palace isn’t the only royal residence that will be opening up for the summer. The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh Scotland will open its grounds in late April accompanied by a new art exhibition, Victoria & Albert: Our Lives in Watercolour. Windsor Castle, where the Queen and her husband Prince Philip have been quarantining throughout the pandemic, will also welcome the public in May.
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