Buds are turning to blossoms, bulbs to blooms and birds are singing in the hedgerows.
It’s not just gardeners who want to be out in the garden in the coming weeks. We could all do with a green and pleasant hideaway after our stormy, wet winter.
Here are some of the best places to stay in the UK…
BLOOMING WONDERFUL
Enjoy private access to Easton Estate and Walled Gardens by staying in its Gatehouse Lodge
The door to the lodge, located in Lincolnshire, opens onto 12 acres of spring bulbs and flowers
Enjoy private access to Easton Estate and Walled Gardens, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, by staying in its Gatehouse Lodge. Its door opens on to 12 acres of spring bulbs, flower gardens and historic terraces leading to the River Witham.
Details: From £500 for two nights, sleeping two (eastonholidaycottages.co.uk).
LOVELY LAKES
At Burn How Garden House Hotel in Bowness, the Lake District, the reception is in a period house — but bedrooms stand separately among trees and flowers in the garden. The award-winning lakeside grounds were designed by celebrated Victorian landscaper Thomas Mawson.
Details: Doubles from £157 for B&B (burnhow.co.uk).
GREAT SCOTS
Behold the Head Gardener’s House at Floors Castle in Kelso, situated in the Scottish Borders
Here, you can stay in a 200-year-old two-bed stone cottage in a Victorian walled garden
Journey to the Scottish Borders to stay at the Head Gardener’s House at Floors Castle in Kelso. Stay in a 200-year-old two-bed stone cottage in the Victorian walled garden and enjoy exclusive after-hours access to its four acres, with its fine herbaceous borders.
Details: Three nights from £825, sleeping four (crabtreeandcrabtree.com).
GLOS GLORY
At the Three Choirs Vineyard in Gloucestershire, guests can stay in glass-walled oak-framed lodges dotted between the vines, which burst into colour from March. Sparrowhawks, foxes and woodpeckers can be spotted — and the famous Golden Daffodil Triangle of Dymock is a two-mile wander away.
Details: From £205 a night, sleeping two (three-choirs-vineyards.co.uk).
DEVON DREAM
Stroll along private paths between flowerbeds at The Walled Garden in South Devon
The Walled Garden in the Dart Valley, South Devon, is a pretty four-bed holiday cottage with its own walled garden, recently featured on BBC Gardeners’ World.
Stroll along private paths between flowerbeds to the dragonfly pond or get tips from the RHS-trained owners pruning in the orchard.
Details: From £195 for a one-night stay (coolstays.com).
POSH PRIMROSES
Spring Cottage at Cliveden, Berkshire, is set among carpets of primroses and daffodils in a National Trust wood
The sumptuously converted summerhouse is where Queen Victoria used to take afternoon tea
The exclusive three-bedroom cottage is available from £2,250 a night and sleeps six
Spring Cottage at Cliveden, Berkshire, is an exclusive — and expensive — three-bed cottage among carpets of primroses and daffodils in a National Trust wood on the banks of the Thames. It’s a sumptuously converted summerhouse where Queen Victoria used to take afternoon tea, and Kenneth Graham wrote Wind In The Willows, all within the grounds of Cliveden Hotel.
Details: From £2,250 a night, sleeping six (clivedenhouse.co.uk).
KENT CASTLE
Within the grounds of Walmer Castle in Kent is the two-bedroom Garden Cottage, which offers a chance to stroll through orchards of cherry and apple blossom from your door, or explore acres of daffs, bluebells and fritillaries.
Details: From £540 for three nights (english-heritage.org.uk).
MARVELLOUS MAGNOLIAS
The Garden Cottage at Wootton Hall, Derbyshire is by a 12-acre ericaceous garden of rhododendrons and magnolias. It’s owned by nearby gastropub, the Duncombe Arms.
Details: Three nights from £750, sleeping six (duncombearms.co.uk).
WELSH WONDERS
Staying at Y Bwthyn Bach Cottage in Pembrokeshire, you are within the superb Dyffryn Fernant RHS gardens —open to the public to admire from Easter, but you can stay overnight all year. This humble one-bed stone, whitewashed outbuilding is almost hidden by plants, and is without a TV or mobile signal, but the compensation is famous displays of tulips and blossoms on your doorstep.
Details: From £498 a week, sleeping three (dyffrynfernant.co.uk).
NORFOLK TREAT
This three-bed holiday home at Wolterton Hall offers private access to one of the country’s largest walled kitchen gardens, and avenues of spring fruit blossom
Plant lovers adore the Garden House, a wisteria-draped 18th-century cottage, at Wolterton Hall, within the Walpole family’s 500-acre landscaped estate. The dog-friendly, three-bed holiday home offers direct private access to one of the country’s largest walled kitchen gardens, and avenues of spring fruit blossom and carpets of spring bulbs.
Details: Seven nights from £512, sleeping six (holidaycottages.co.uk).
BALMORAL BEAUTY
Tigh Na Garaidh (‘Gardener’s Cottage’) is a pretty Victorian cottage on the Balmoral estate. You’ll wake up alongside Charles’ thriving greenhouses, surrounded by a huge productive garden — but only when the royals aren’t in residence. Beyond the veg patches, expect swathes of spring daffs.
Details: From £720 a week, sleeping four (balmoralcastle.com).
