In the 1780's John, Lord Muncaster, planted several thousand hardwood trees, beech, chestnut, elm and oak thoughout the estate. Many of these trees remain and provide the framework for the gardens and protection from the wild.
Rhododendrons were first planted around 1840. A decade later Joseph Hooker started collecting rhododendrons in Sikkim and started a passion for these plants that lasts to this day.
Sir John Ramsden inherited Muncaster in 1917 and soon realised that the gardens provided one of the best sites in the country for growing what was to become a 'flood' of new species. Together with Lionel de Rothschild and others, he helped finance expeditions to South West China and Tibet. George Forrest and Frank Kingdom-Ward made many separate journeys into the remote mountains and made thousands of plant and seed collections. They were followed by Ludlow and Sherriff and the American Joseph Rock. Their collections, which included many dwarf species now available to gardeners today, would be much the poorer without these hard won introductions.