3 Best Sights in Argyll and the Isles, Scotland

Visit Achamore House Gardens in late spring to see its azaleas and its prize collection of rhododendrons ablaze with color. The island's mellow microclimate fosters these lush shrubberies.

Rambling over 12,000 acres, one of Britain's finest collections of conifers is set off by rhododendron blossoms in early summer. You can find the garden around the head of Loch Fyne, about 10 miles east of Inveraray. There's a wild woodland walk beyond the garden; both are open all year. The house, regarded as architect Sir Robert Lorimer's masterpiece, is open to visitors only on Fridays between April and October.

Exotic Himalayan plants flourish in the gentle microclimate of this 100-acre garden, where the Crarae Burn, a small stream, cascades through a rocky gorge. Rhododendrons, azaleas, and magnolias lend color, and native flowers and trees attract birds and butterflies.