Gardens to visit for the best displays of spring bulbs

Independent

25-02-2025

Whether you love cheerful daffodils, pint-sized crocuses, majestic tulips or dainty camassias, there are plenty of gardens to visit where you can take in the glorious swathes of spring flowering bulbs.
Now's your chance to leaf through some of the best:
Daffodils
Anyone who loves daffodils should visit the family home of the iconic poet William Wordsworth, when the hosts of golden daffodils are out. Wordsworth considered himself as good a landscape gardener as a poet, and the Rydal Mount garden is the largest example of his design. The five acre garden, incorporating fellside terraces, rock pools and an ancient mound, remains very much as he designed it.
RHS Garden Bridgewater has 20,000 bulbs, planted over the last two years, which are due to come into bloom. In the Community Wellbeing garden, daffodils lead the way for a pageant of spring bulbs, with tulips and alliums following later.
Lower Bowden Manor, Pangbourne, Berkshire (open by arrangement for the National Garden Scheme to December 5, for groups of between six and 50)
This seven-acre garden with stunning views, designed and added to over the years by owner and garden designer Juliet Cox-Nicol, features a carpet of daffodils surrounding a marble statue of Pan in the orchard, while ancient multi-stem apple trees link the garden to the wider landscape, which overlooks the Thames Valley to the Chilterns.
Welcome in the spring with the magnificent daffodil displays at Springhill, accompanied by some special magnolias and beautiful, white-stemmed birches. The daffodil collection in the walled garden is expanding year by year, with 600 new bulbs added each autumn.
Mill of Forneth, Perthshire (open March 30 and June 8 for Scotland's Gardens Scheme)
Stroll through drifts of daffodils on the banks of the Lunan Burn, on the site of a former watermill originally laid out in the 1970s by James Aitken, the Scottish landscape designer and naturalist. The sheltered four-acre garden has a range of mature trees, including a Himalayan blue cedar, large rhododendrons, azaleas and a wide range of shrubs. Planting includes established perennials with seasonal colours, many bulbs, primulas and heathers.
This is the garden that just keeps on giving. From early in the season, in the hidden woodland garden, little daffodils pop up, then by mid-March a showstopping display of tens of thousands of daffodils and crocuses appear in large drifts throughout the Kennel Bank. Thousands of snake's head fritillaries can also be enjoyed in the North Lawn in the spring.
Bates Green Garden, East Sussex (open Wednesdays and Saturdays from February 26 to October 26, and on March 9 and October 5 for the National Garden Scheme)
A garden partner of the RHS, this tranquil 1.5 acre garden surrounding a 19th century gamekeeper's cottage was designed and planted by the late plantswoman Carolyn McCutchan over a period of many years, from 1968. Spring visitors can walk through a wild daffodil glade leading to the 24-acre ancient Beatons Wood, home of the Arlington Bluebell Walk in late spring.
Wallington, Cambo, nr Morpeth, Northumberland
Just as the snowdrops have reached their peak, drifts of crocuses emerge to create a deep purple carpet in the garden of this National Trust property, where the crocus lawn is a must-see, along with the fantastic displays of other spring bulbs throughout the season.
Tulips
Hampton Court Palace, Surrey
Visitors can see more than 10,00 vibrant tulips which will fill Fountain Court, the heart of Queen Mary II's baroque palace, at this year's annual tulip festival which runs from April 11 to May 5. Floating tulip bowls will drift in the Great Fountain, showcasing a beautiful floral display.
The palace holds one of the UK's largest displays of award-winning planted tulips, with more than 100,000 tulip bulbs bringing its historic gardens to life. Bright blooms will burst from every corner of the formal gardens and cobbled courtyards, with each bulb handpicked and planted by its expert gardening team.
Abbotsford near Melrose, Scottish Borders (open from March 1)
Don't miss the tulip festival in late April and early May at the home of Sir Walter Scott, who designed Abbotsford's three Regency walled gardens in the 1820s to surround his 'Conundrum Castle', and which remain virtually intact today. Scott's garden offers a series of secluded, richly detailed and sheltered 'rooms'. In its day, it would have showcased the latest plants discovered from around the globe. Regular tours are held exploring Scott's vision for the garden and the hidden meanings of its design.
The restored Sunken Garden at 19th-century Castle Ward is adorned with thousands of colourful tulips, hyacinths and Osmanthus fortunei each spring. Head Gardener Andy Dainty based the design of the garden on an 1864 painting by Mary Ward, which saw the installation of 61 parterres, each filled with a variety of colourful plants. In late spring, you'll find five miles of bluebell trails to explore too.
Camassias
Want to see swathes of camassias in late spring? Look no further than the RHS's flagship garden when flowering begins around mid to late April with the blue Camassia leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii Caerulea Group, and culminates some eight to 10 weeks later with starbursts of creamy white Camassia leichtlinii 'Semiplena' in late May to June. The camassia meadows are near the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden and RHS Hilltop and extend to the Rock Garden.
Bluebells
Hardcastle Crags, West Yorkshire
Steep wooded valley, waterfalls and fast-flowing streams have given this place the name of Little Switzerland. So enjoy the mass of bluebells on a three-mile walk to blow the cobwebs away.
Take the whole family through the estate's bluebell wood in late April and early May on a four-mile route which is ideal for all weathers, thanks to a hard surface.
The woodlands at Blickling are carefully managed through the winter months to ensure plenty of sunlight reaches the ground, producing a glorious show of bluebells, which you'll see whichever way you look, while savouring the views of the spectacular hall and lake.