The garden has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1955 when it was donated by Ida Copeland following the death of her son Geoffrey, a stained glass memorial - bearing the Copeland Crest - remains to this effect in the small church in Feock.
Many of the species that flourish in the mild Cornish air, including the rhododendrons and azaleas which are now such a feature of the garden, were planted by the Copelands including hydrangeas, camellias and flowering cherries, and exotics such as the ginkgo and various species of palm. They also ensured that the blossoms they nurtured had a wider, if unknowing audience. Mr Ronald Copeland was chairman and later managing director of his family's business, the Spode china factory, and flowers grown at Trelissick were used as models for those painted on ware produced at the works.
The Copelands' family crest, a horse's head, now decorates the weathervane on the turret of the stable block, a pair to the Gilbert squirrels on the Victorian Gothic water tower, an echo of the family who lived here in the second half of the 19th century (their ancestor, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was lost at sea in his tiny ship Squirrel after discovering Newfoundland).
The garden is noted for its rare shrubs. It offers a large park, woodland walks, views over the estuary of the River Fal and Falmouth.
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