Chelsea Physic Garden is walkable, otherwise it's parks. Hyde, Regents, etc also Kensington Gardens. (Not to be confused with Kensington Palace Gardens which are open when the palace is.) You can get to Kew on public transport. There's the Garden Museum near Lambeth Palace but it's not very exciting and has almost no garden. But it does have a replica of John Tradescant's tomb and a nice cafe.

Thank you! I checked out the Chelsea Physic Garden and it looks very interesting. I’ve never been to a garden focused on botanical/medicinal themes.

Regarding the others, do you recommend them in October? It makes me yearn for a visit in summer after reading about all the roses at the other parks!

It’s been quite a few years now since we travelled to the UK. Beautilful place to visit! We mostly went in May so the gardens were good by then, but my first visit with DH was the last week of October and the first week of November in 1991. Raincoat, umbrella and boots were useful frequently :-) The temperatures were 10-12C (~50-54 F) so there was a lot still green - a few days after we got home, the forecast here was calling for the first snowfall (according to the travel diary DH kept). We did visit Kew and walked around various parks in London and then headed out in a rented car to the country (Bath, Cotswolds, friends in Cardiff, etc.) If i was going back now, I’d try to go to the RHS garden Wisley in Woking, which, apparently, can be reached by train and shuttle bus from London in about an hour. I’m not sure what the cost is,

The UK is a great place to visit - for the gardens and other things…! Driving on the ’wrong’ side of the road was fairly easy. Have fun - I'm sure you’ll want to go again. Our travel journal had a list of places we wanted to go back to see after that first visit :-)

Thank you, woodyoak. wisley is on the list as a possible day trip. I'm going with a group, but there is supposed to be some "alone" days. I appreciate your input!