Each lake has a different atmosphere and planting … the first tranquil with specimen trees and shrubs reflected in the water. the second vibrant from the hot, South African summer garden, and the third mysterious, with its cool, ghostly quarry lake with creeper clad cliffs, fernery and surrounding bamboos. Magnificent in spring with traditional Cornish rhododendrons, azaleas, woodland flowers and bulbs, colour develops all through the summer with soft harmonies of the herbaceous beds to explosions of hot colour in the South African areas with drifts of ornamental grasses, cannas, rubeckias and proteas. Bonython is a traditional, mixed agricultural Cornish estate with the 18th century Manor, farm and woodland stretching almost from one side of the peninsula (the Helford River) to the other (the beach at Poldhu Cove) with each shore just over a mile away.
