Our final full day in Cornwall and another trip to a special place for me. This time Heligan....or rather the grandly titled 'Lost Gardens of Heligan'. I first came here soon after it first opened to the public but haven't been for many years.

For those who don't know the story of Heligan, here goes:

Heligan was owned by the Tremayne family from the 16th century until early in the 20th century. Under their care it was developed into one of the most striking gardens in the South West and was widely reported in the horticultural world as such.

Then they disappeared!

In fact, what happened was the First World War - the 22 gardeners went away to fight as did the family. When the war was over, the house was divided into flats and sold and the gardens were left to their own devices, still in the ownership of the Tremaynes but no longer cared for by them.

To all intents and purposes, they just disappeared until (I think) the manager of Boney M, that 1970's bastion of the tacky world of pop, Tim Smit read about them and wondered where they'd gone. I'm afraid my recollection of the story may be slightly off-kilter with regard to who did what and when but the essence remains the same. Tim went to Heligan and hacked his way through brambles and ivy to find himself bewitched by the garden underneath the invasion of unwanted plants.

Further exploration made it clear there was much of the original garden intact and of course as there had been no real impact of the 20th century, unlike other great gardens, Heligan was unique.

Anyway, the enthusiasm of the gardeners and horticulturalists who made this discovery and another example of tenacity in the face of overwhelming difficulties, has meant the gardens have been largely and lovingly restored to their former glory and are open to the public these days so all can enjoy them rather than just the wealthy few.

My return to this place has revealed much change, although only in the re-establishment of the garden, box hedges once again border the plots in the walled gardens and there is a mature vegetable garden these days. It's still a glorious garden.

There are some incredible things here - in the days in which the garden was first developed, one couldn't pop down to Sainsbury and buy peaches and pineapples so the wealthy tried to grow them. Heligan has some fantastic 'fish scale' glass houses containing peaches, bananas and much more. They even have a pineapple bed that grows real pineapples(!), kept warm on a bed of rotting manure, giving off enough heat to ensure the plants live and they reliably fruit. I was amazed to learn on this visit that pineapple growing was common in these country houses - in fact, so much so, that Heligan's pineapples never even won any prizes at produce shows! They were always beaten by other growers.

This giant's head emerging from the land is a new addition to the gardens, in the woodland walk leading down to the most amazing tropical valley where tree ferns, canna lillies and gunnera all continued to grow despite being much too tender to grow in the UK normally and with a total lack of care until a little over ten years ago when the gardens were revitalised.

It strikes me as a good thing that gardens evolve although I do hope the people charged with Heligan's fate don't forget that what makes it such a treasure is the fact that it's almost intact in a 19th century sort of way!