Greenbank Garden

Greenbank Garden is a walled garden of two and a half acres behind a Georgian house in Clarkston, less than a mile from Glasgow's southern suburbs, built in the 1760s for Robert Allason, a merchant whose money came from tobacco and the slave trade. The National Trust for Scotland runs it as a demonstration garden for West Coast domestic gardeners, with more than 3,600 named plants in a maze of hedged compartments, a National Collection of Bergenia, daffodils and bluebells in spring and long borders through summer, and woodland walks around the outside that are free to use. The house itself is no longer open. Reviewers call it a hidden treasure with benches in every corner and say the June displays are stunning, though they wish more plants were labelled. Tips from visitors: the car park holds about 30 cars, the entrance is a signposted drive off Flenders Road, dogs are welcome in the woodland and cafe but not the walled garden, and it closes from November to March.