Cerney House is a medium sized garden, but you'll need to allow plenty of time to visit as there is so much to see, all crammed in to one of the most magical Cotswolds gardens.

It is a privately run, totally unique and captivating garden that is quite clearly a personal expression of an intense love of plants and gardening. 

The owner, Lady Angus, has created a vibrant celebration of everything that typifies the best of English gardens. It's not just informal, its bordering on crazy, with plants bursting forth in all directions, creating an overwhelming impression of nature in overdrive.

If you prefer your gardens neatly edged and clearly delineated then Cerney House is perhaps not for you. 

Vegetables merge with flowers, shrubs, herbs and fruit trees in an apparently incoherent jumble. 

But its a jumble full of delicacy and beauty that demonstrate a skilled ability to plant creatively.  And after a while you soon start to realise that there is order and the collection old heirloom plants and newer cultivars have been very artfully combined.

This reviewer visited in summer when these gardens are at their peak, and the air was filled with a multitude of fragrances as the insects, birds and bees busily played their part in the passage of the season. 

But spring is apparently a close second, with a huge collection of bulbs springing to life with vibrant colours. 

Whenever you come to visit, and come you must, Cerney House Garden will delight you with its romantic 'secret garden' experience.

Watch out especially for the long borders that lead up both sides of the walled garden - one lined with Lavenders and the other a delicate mixed border. 

There's a neat little knot garden with Quince trees doing their own thing in the midst of some smartly trimmed box hedges. 

Next to the Gazebo is a rambling wildflower patch, waist high in swaying pink Cosmos set quaintly against a white picket fence. 

Espalliered fruit trees line the high brick walls intermingled with rich blue Clematis and white roses. And of course roses proliferate, everywhere, especially pink Floribundas that cascade over pergolas and archways.

Don't forget to also look out for the front gardens that provide a rich, double border (the Peacock Walk) down to a small lake at the bottom of the garden.

The scale indicates that you would need 60-90 minutes to cover all pathways, but there is so much to see and savour that we would recommend at least two and a half hours. 

You'll need at least fifteen minutes to visit the little gift shop and cafe alone. This is housed in the Bothy, above the Victorian greenhouse. The owners demonstrate a refreshingly enlightened approach by operating it un-staffed, asking visitors to record their own purchases and take their own change from cash tins. (if only the rest of the world could follow suit !)

Oh, and the Lemon Sponge cake is out of this world.