In late April/early May Pashley Manor’s spectacular Tulip Festival sees this garden, on the border of Sussex and Kent, carpeted with over 40, 000 tulips, creating stunning scenes for visitors to enjoy.

A hundred varieties of tulip are planted in colour themed garden ‘rooms’ throughout the grounds and in pot displays.

Visitors can wander from elegant displays of white lily flowered and palest cream classic tulips planted around an old brick terrace, to the open space of sweeping herbaceous borders covered in a riot of reds and oranges surrounded by tendrils of bronze fennel, or romantic soft pink peony flowered blooms cloistered between red brick walls and pleached pear trees.

Follow the winding paths down to the woodland, where the Bluebell Walk is often in flower around the same time as the tulips.

Yet more tulips are on display as cut flowers in the Bloms Bulbs marquee. Bloms, winners of seventy Chelsea Gold Medals, are on hand throughout the Festival to share their knowledge of these beautiful bulbs and to take orders from those inspired by the spectacle.

With a café serving locally sourced and homemade cakes, scones and light lunches, which can be enjoyed on the terrace, a shop with gorgeous gifts, souvenirs and plants, and exhibitions of garden sculpture and floral art, Pashley’s Tulip Festival makes a superb day out.