Blooming lovely: 12 of the UK’s best gardens to visit in early spring

19.02.2024 - 10:17 / theguardian.com

In the midst of winter with its low grey skies, the scents and colours of embryonic spring are a welcome morale booster. These gardens will offer spectacular views over the coming months, as banks of delicate snowdrops, and armies of budding daffs, bluebells and tulips return.

Early purple crocuses line the drive before a huge wave of daffodils rolls down the lawn at Castle Howard, 15 miles north of York, from February until April (often peaking around Easter). From early spring, peacocks show off their new tail feathers, grape hyacinths bloom in the old rose garden and cowslips freckle the banks in Ray Wood. There are paths through the woodland under early blossom and bright green leaves. The woods explode into colour from late April, with bluebells and neon rhododendrons. Skelf Island adventure playground opened in 2019 and there are several cafes across the huge grounds, serving locally farmed produce such as the estate’s own sausages.
From £9/£4.50. Gardens and grounds open daily, castlehoward.co.uk

With a self-guided spring trail through citrus-fragrant magnolia and flamboyant camellias, Borde Hill is a hidden gem. Five thousand February Gold narcissi have been newly planted for 2024 and there’s a cafe in the old Peacock House. Horticulturalist Colonel Stephenson Robert Clarke began to create the garden when he bought the estate in 1893. He paid plant hunters to find seeds for Chinese tulip trees and white-flowered lacebarks from New Zealand so that visitors are transported around the world as they walk through it. Fragrant Chinese honeysuckle, dawn arrowwoods and lots more are flowering in early spring. From a formal Italian garden, where pine and eucalyptus are reflected in the lily pond, paths lead through subtropical ferns and palm trees to the wilder rhododendron garden, with its Himalayan hybrids, some blooming from March.
£12 adult/£8 child, free for Historic Houses members. Open daily from 10 February, bordehill.co.uk

The 15,000 snowdrop bulbs that were planted in Hyde Hall’s winter garden in 2017 have spread and multiplied into delicate white carpets under glowing midwinter fire dogwood stems and varied evergreens, all looking great in February. Winding paths lead through a sensory smörgåsbord of textured bark, luminous birch trunks and fragrant shrubs. Crocuses and aconites fringe the Upper Pond with its hilltop views across Essex, with trees including early flowering cherries and magnolia in bloom from about March.
£15.85/£7.95, RHS members free. Open daily, rhs.org.uk

This 280-hectare (700-acre) wildlife-rich nature reserve in the Wensum Valley has a sculpture trail through the wetlands, wildflower meadows and bird hides. It’s also home to cranes, flamingos, huge playgrounds, an aviary