In April I was lucky enough to travel to Jerusalem with a group of horticulturalists from around the UK.

We proved a hardy band of brothers - some of our number were professional horticulturalists but mainly the group was made up of amateur gardeners with a professional bent.

We visited the main botanical garden in Jerusalem itself and the Baha’i Gardens - inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in recognition of their ‘outstanding universal value’ as holy places and places of pilgrimage for the followers of the Baha’i faith.

The Baha’i gardens are well worth a visit. They’re an expression of people from different generations and backgrounds all inspired by their common faith. These gardens can be found in the middle of Haifa and feature a staircase of 19 terraces which rise up the slope of Mount Carmel.

The flower beds were lovingly groomed (like ours at my gardens at Hever Castle) and nurtured by a team of gardeners. Visitors can enjoy fantastic views of the city and the Mediterranean Sea.

I love travelling and visiting gardens overseas to grab inspiration for design and also to see how plants grow in different environments. We can borrow a lot from Israel, we can grow olives, pistachio, poppies, roses (hybrid t’s and floribundas) and a huge variety of bulbs here too.

Unlike us with our four seasons, Israel has just one main growing season in the year. Everything is in bloom in March/April and there there is no rain until November. It’s bizarre to see daffodils growing alongside roses, agapanthus, Iris’s and pelargoniums in full bloom but it’s also exciting to see how nature performs differently in different parts of the world.

The Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem are mind-blowing.

The 30-acre oasis can be found on the southeast corner of the Hebrew University’s Givat Ram campus which houses about 10,000 species arranged geographically, with sections for plants native to the Mediterranean region, central and southwest Asia, Australia, North America, Europe and southern Africa.

The gardens have a huge collection of bonsai trees, a tropical conservatory and a herb garden and medicinal garden. Native plants such as mustard, mallow and rosemary are all good growers here in the UK.

The spice markets in Jerusalem can also be inspirational - and provide ideas for what we can grow home here under cover.

I came away from the gardens of Israel enthused with what I could do back home in the UK. Inspired by the native lupins planted within the Botanical Garden, which stretched out in a sea of blue, I was reminded by the statement that can be made with the plant.

This fact was confirmed to me this week when I visited the Chelsea Flower Show this week where lupins seemed to be the plant for 2017!

Neil’s top plants from his travels

Agapanthus or the African lily are summer-flowering perennial plants, grown for their showy flowers, commonly in shades of blue and purple, but also white and pink.

Pelargoniums, commonly known as geraniums, are a large, diverse genus of flowering plants which includes about 200 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly known as geraniums.

Rosmarinus officinalis, commonly known as rosemary, is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region.

The pistachio, a member of the cashew family, is a small tree originating from Central Asia and the Middle East. The tree produces seeds that are widely consumed as food.

The olive, known by the botanical name Olea europaea, meaning "European olive", is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant.

Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine, is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus includes over 200 species.