What is it about the English and their gardens? The primal need to plant and cultivate? A push-back reaction to the digital world? Or just luck that the (increasingly) temperate climate in Europe and long hours of daylight help so many plants thrive?

The nation's gardens bloom everywhere: on rooftops, in inner cities, at suburban houses and grand country estates. They grow rhubarb, lavender, beech trees and "old" roses ... sometimes side by side. The English passion for gardens runs as deep as Hawai'i's for ethnic foods.

"People today are very aware of the value of outdoor spaces, often as a place to socialize in," said Sally Hamlyn at the Museum of Garden History in Lambeth, London. "Decorating the garden mimics attention to good interior design, and a return to the theme of creating an 'outdoor room.' "

However, the beacon of hope for hands-on gardening, Hamlyn says, "is the growing interest in growing your own produce in gardens and allotments." (Allotments are public lands on which people can get permission to garden, like American "pea patches.")

England itself is a garden encircled by the sea, wrote William Shakespeare, himself a gardener, whose players are forever entering and exiting pastoral utopias. Today, it's a romantic idyll challenged by an excess of rain.

Like the weather and soccer, gardening opens conversation. Friends swap seeds and cuttings; allotments offer escape from chores. Visit Britain in summer and you find a nation gripped by horticultural fever. Garden centers vie with home-improvement superstores. Chelsea Flower Show tickets (if you can snag them) must be bought well in advance. Gardens top the National Trust's list of most-visited sites.

Some plots, such as the Knot Garden at Hatfield House, were laid out 400 years ago. The Thames Barrier Park — "a park for the 21st century" — in 2000.

London's tree-filled gardens, parks and squares make it one of the greenest capitals in the world. The reward (besides being mostly free to wander) is the simple pleasure that springs from well-tended earth. And like every good travel destination, visitors come home with ideas and a sense that if others can plant a garden, then so can they.

ALONG WITH THE SPECTACULAR FOLIAGE, TAKE IN THE RICH HISTORY EACH ATTRACTION HAS TO OFFER

KENSINGTON PALACE GARDENS

Almost as magical as the story itself was the appearance, in Kensington Gardens, of George Frampton's bronze sculpture of Peter Pan in 1911. The statue was placed without fanfare right in the mythical spot where Peter landed in J.M. Barrie's fairy tale "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens," a prelude to his adventures in Neverland.

The gardens, next to Hyde Park, are today something of a shrine to Princess Diana's memory with a playground, a walk and now a fountain dedicated to her. But they also include the peaceful Italian Gardens and shelter plenty of bird life.

Best time to visit: Summer, when there are free bandstand recitals. The Broadwalk Café is open daily.

Hours: 6 a.m.-midnight daily, year-round

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, KEW

English gardens don't come better than this. Kew is the most complete botanical garden in the world, with more than 30,000 plants and six glass houses (the Temperate House is the biggest greenhouse in the world), all flawlessly maintained. Examples of nearly every plant grown in Britain and abroad are here; its conservatories are filled with exotic and strange blooms from around the world.

More than a showpiece and research center, however, Kew also is a repository for the Millennium Seed Bank, a project to preserve seeds from 25 percent of the world's flowering plants by 2020, as protection from climate change and over-harvesting. Earlier this year, the bank registered its 1 billionth seed from a threatened African bamboo in Mali that seeds once every seven years.

Kew's year-round exhibitions, tours and events, and its location on the river in the pretty Richmond suburb, is a wonderful day out.

Best time to visit: Any season. Crocuses, lilacs and bluebells blanket Kew in spring and summer; the giant water lilies in the Princess of Wales Conservatory flower in July; the Mediterranean Garden, the Japanese Minka Garden and the Palm House delight all year.

Moore at Kew: 28 monumental outdoor sculptures by Henry Moore are set among Kew's gardens and glass houses. Through March 30.

Ice skating: on the mammoth outdoor rink, Nov. 25-Jan. 6, 10 a.m.10 p.m. www.kew.org/events/iceskating2007.html

Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily (except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1). $25, children free with an adult. Tube: Kew, www.kew.org.

KENSINGTON ROOF GARDENS

Kensington Roof Gardens, on top of the old Derry and Toms department store on Kensington High Street, is about 100 feet above street level. In a bold move in the 1930s, landscape architect Ralph Hancock laid out the 1.5-acre gardens on bricks and clinker over a waterproof membrane, bringing in about 500 species of plants and shrubs. Hancock also imported rock from Pennsylvania for his alpine planting, on the assumption that it would withstand London's polluted atmosphere, which it has. A Spanish garden with fountains, an English woodland garden, and possibly the highest place to find flamingos and pintail ducks in London is all amazingly "up on the roof!" Fittingly, air mogul Sir Richard Branson bought the gardens in 1981.

Best time to visit: Definitely summer, but the panoramic view of London and the rooftop's Babylon restaurant is open year-round.

Information: www.roofgardens.com.

FENTON HOUSE

The detached 17th-century merchant's house in Hampstead, North London, has roses, an orchard and a working kitchen garden. Steps beyond the rose garden lead down to a sunken, walled oasis of orchard, glasshouse, culinary herb border, cut-flower beds and vegetables. In spring, the lawn below the orchard is transformed into a flowery meadow of bulbs. More than 30 varieties of English apple are grown in the 300-year-old orchard.

Best time to visit: Late September, when the annual Apple Day gives visitors a taste of the old varieties that are gradually being lost through monoculture. Windmill Hill, Hampstead.

Information: www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

KYOTO JAPANESE GARDEN

Smaller than most London parks and conveniently central, Holland Park's Kyoto Garden opened in 1991 to celebrate London's Japanese Festival, and was refurbished in 2001 as part of Japan 2001. Both the original design and refurbishment were carried out by garden specialists flown over from Kyoto. This peaceful corner of the park features a series of ponds, and waterfalls. Holland Park has been described as the most romantic park in London to stroll.

Best time to visit: Year-round. Best in spring and autumn. Free.

MUSEUM OF GARDEN HISTORY

The world's first Museum of Garden History is housed in the restored medieval church of St. Mary-at-Lambeth, on the south bank of the River Thames. The museum tells the story of gardens and gardening in Britain from the Roman era to the present, following the trends and changes over the centuries. As well as the country's finest collections of historic garden tools, artifacts and ephemera, the museum's 17th-century-style knot garden cultivates plants that can be traced back to that period.

Knot Gardens were first seen in the mid-15th century, a time of relative peace in England. Houses were no longer built as fortresses but rather with big windows to look out over gardens designed to complement the architecture. Knots were used for everything: from lashing buildings together to weaving clothes; grand garden design reflected their importance. Museum hours: daily (not Monday), 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. $6. Read more about garden history at www.museumgardenhistory.org.

HATFIELD HOUSE GARDEN

Twenty minutes by train from King's Cross is Hatfield House and Gardens. The famous 17th-century landscape gardener John Tradescant the Elder laid out the gardens after Tradescant was sent to continental Europe to bring back trees, bulbs, plants and fruit trees, never previously grown in England. This beautifully designed garden has orchards, elaborate fountains, scented plants, terraces and herb gardens. In the garden is the Great Hall, the surviving wing of the Royal Palace of Hatfield (1485) where Elizabeth I spent her childhood.

Visitors can enjoy the scented herb garden and fountains, and view the 400-year-old knot garden adjoining the Tudor Old Palace.

Best time to visit: Spring, when the grounds are filled with daffodils.

AUDLEY END HOUSE AND GARDENS

When it was built in 1614, Audley End House was the biggest in England. What remains of the original house is a Jacobean mansion with many rooms restored to original design. Capability Brown landscaped the beautiful gardens in the 18th century with fountains, temples and an extensive walled kitchen garden. The garden was painstakingly restored from an overgrown, semi-derelict state in 1999 by Garden Organic, the U.K.'s leading organic growing charity. Renovated to its former glory, it now looks as it would have in late Victorian times — full of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers, which are sold at the garden's shop.

Best time to visit: June-September. Gardens open year-round, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $10.

House: House hours are seasonal; go to www.english-heritage.org.uk.

HAM HOUSE GARDEN

Laid out in the 17th century, the famous Cherry Garden is filled with lavender and trellises of trailing roses watched over by a statue of Bacchus. Clipped yew cones, hibiscus and pomegranate trees border a maze-like wilderness and a 17th-century orangery. Walnut and chestnut trees in the outer courtyard act as roosts and nesting sites for a large flock of green parakeets. The house has changed little in 300 years, and the same applies to its gardens, which feature the oldest orangery in Britain, an icehouse and a dairy. The National Trust has a tea room for visitors. The house is said to be haunted by the Duchess of Lauderdale as well as her dog, which a number of visitors claim to have seen running down the corridors.

Best time to visit: Late summer, when the lavender and hibiscus are flowering, and the garden is at its most lush.

Information: www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

MOTTISFONT ROSE GARDEN

"Smell the roses" takes on its true meaning at Mottisfont Abbey in Romsey, south of London, home to Britain's collection of pre-1900 shrub roses. The abbey and its beautiful walled kitchen gardens date from the 13th century. Today, they nurture the National Collection of Pre-1900 shrub roses.

Best time to visit: Early June, when thousands of roses are in perfect bloom and their fragrance permeates acres of landscape. House, gardens and Kitchen Cafe open daily at various times depending on the season. $14.

Information: www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

Reach Chris Oliver at coliver@honoluluadvertiser.com.