Heligan isn’t just the kitchen gardens – it was an estate, so has plenty of ornamental gardens, and wild space. There’s a section called the Jungle that’s stuck inside a steep walled valley, so it’s got a warmer microclimate than the gardens near the house. During Victorian times, it was planted with tree ferns and other exotics brought in by plant hunters. Quite a bit of that was still intact when the gardens were restored. One of the more amusing plants down there is the giant rhubarb – you can see it above in the picture with my mother and sister, for scale.
You can easily spend a day at Heligan and not see everything. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.