A band of acid soil in otherwise alkaline country lets Evenley Wood Garden grow magnolias and rhododendrons that the fields around it cannot. Tim Whiteley, once chairman of the RHS Lily Group, bought the 60-acre wood near Brackley in 1980 and filled it with rare trees, lilies and bulbs — a martagon lily raised here carries the name ‘Evenley Jane’. It’s now an RHS partner garden, open seasonally for a charge. Kings Sutton station is about 10km to the west.
