Set in a steep valley just below Dartmoor, Lukesland Gardens — in Ivybridge, Devon — are romantic woodland gardens filled with exotic trees and flowering shrubs, many of historic importance. Caroline Donald paid a visit; photographs by Mark Bolton.
If only spread counted towards becoming a UK champion tree, the Magnolia campbellii at Lukesland, a former hunting lodge above Ivybridge and two fields below Dartmoor, would well qualify: its branches reach an…