Great Dixter is a historic house, garden, centre of education, a place of pilgrimage for horticulturists from across the world, and remained the lifelong family home of the late gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd.

John Massey's garden is tucked away behind Ashwood Nurseries in Staffordshire, set against the beautiful backdrop of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Carol Klein pays a visit to her friend's plot, where highlights include hepaticas gathered from around the globe and displayed beside the pond and rockery.

The green-fingered expert visits Gravetye Manor in West Sussex. Gravetye was once the living laboratory of horticultural innovator William Robinson and ornamental flower gardens compete with his beautifully designed walled kitchen garden, which supplies the hotel's restaurant. In spring, Carol delights in the wildflower meadows covered in blankets of daffodils, crocus and snowdrops and in the summer, revels in the beauty of the ornamental flower garden. The autumn brings dazzling displays of colour among the trees, while in winter the gardeners spend their time gearing up for the year ahead.

The plantswoman and broadcaster visits Gresgarth Hall, the Lancashire country home of garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd. The grounds of the estate comprise the formal garden rooms nearer the house, and a wilder area where Arabella has planted 6,000 trees among cleverly designed meandering paths. Elsewhere, the garden shows off Arabella's immense knowledge and precision. In spring, splashes of early colour nestle beneath well-chosen spring-flowering shrubs, while summer witnesses an explosion of scent and floral abundance.

Today, the gardens include huge tropical borders, intricate knot gardens, copious topiary, fantastical architecture, and theatrical water features.

This week, Carol visits the garden of Coton Manor, located in the peaceful Northamptonshire countryside. It was an inheritance that might have intimidated many.

Carol visits Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk, home of the Bloom dynasty of Norfolk horticulturists who introduced British gardeners to a wealth of plants and devised a revolutionary way to display them. Carol spends time with Adrian Bloom, whose ethos is to introduce the very best examples of plants that will grace even a tiny garden.

Carol visits the garden of a 16th-century manor house, Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire, a beautiful and intricate four-acre oasis in the English garden tradition. With its traditional craftsmanship, sympathetic architecture, elegant topiary and hedges, and deep borders, it looks like it's been here for 100 years, but owners Lesley and John only bought the property in 1983, and since then have set about recapturing the spirit and quality of a bygone era.

Set in the quiet valleys of West Wales, the Aberglasney gardens are filled with plants that thrive in some of the wettest conditions that Britain has to offer.

Graham Gough and his wife Lucy started their nursery, Marchants Hardy Plants on the borders of the South Downs in 1998. Today their gardens have become a Mecca for people who love a new style of gardening.

Creator Beth Chatto, was a pioneer gardener and her 15 acre garden is the embodiment of "right plant, right place" and is situated in one of the driest spots in Britain.

The gardens, set at historic Llanover House, have been tended by seven generations of the same green-fingered family.