Exclusive: See The Real Magical Gardens In The U.K. Where 'The Secret Garden' Was Filmed

The garden in The Secret Garden looks different to everyone who reads Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved 1911 classic. It may be an untamed plot of land with room for wildflowers and imagination for some, or a pastoral paradise with every kind of foliage imaginable. The latest adaptation leans toward the latter, dialed up to a hundred, presenting an awe-inspiring oasis full of ferns, flowers, and ancient architecture that makes one feel like they're stepping into a fairy tale. But despite the otherworldly quality of the garden in The Secret Garden, it's not the result of abundant CGI or transplanted exotic plants. It's composed of 7 real gardens located all across the United Kingdom.

/Film has a set of exclusive The Secret Garden images that take us behind the ivy-covered wall and into the magical real-life gardens that became the titular secret garden in the Marc Munden-directed adaptation.

In my review of The Secret Garden, I mused that some of the foliage in the titular magic garden, which Dixie Egerickx's orphaned Mary Lennox stumbles upon while playing outside her uncle's estate, looked like exotic plants from another tropical country, maybe brought in through a mixture of CGI and real planting. But it turns out the magical garden, and all of its awe-inspiring flora, was in the U.K. all along.

These exclusive images reveal that Trebah Garden, Bodnant, Woodhall, Fountains Abbey, Duncombe Park, Ilford Manor, and Puzzlewood formed the titular garden of 2020's The Secret Garden, directed by Marc Munden and written by Jack Thorne. All seven gardens, located throughout the U.K. were the filming locations for the film, forming the pastoral paradise that seemed to stretch on for miles. You can see where the gardens are located in the map below.

It is amazing that the production team were able to scout and locate these very otherworldly-looking gardens to form the central location in the new Secret Garden adaptation. The garden is one of the most striking parts of a beautiful-looking movie, and one that doesn't seem wholly real.

The Secret Garden is now available on VOD in the U.S. It will be released theatrically in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2020.

When Mary Lennox's parents suddenly die, she is sent to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven, on his remote country estate deep in the Yorkshire moors. While exploring, she discovers a hidden magical garden.