Spring is round the corner (nearly!)

If you are feeling the winter blues, it is only 10 weeks ‘til spring

Get your willies on, a warm cardi and a pair of gloves and get out into the fresh air. From Saturday 26 March 2016, the beautiful Hole Park Gardens in Rolvenden, Kent will open to visitors every day. One of the Seven Wonders of the Weald, these gardens delight visitors throughout the seasons.

In early spring the gardens come to life with a mass of flowering bulbs, including swathes of narcissus and daffodils, which cover the 16 acre gardens and 10 acre woodland. Shade loving hellebores provide more interest along with early flowering cherry trees and impressive mature magnolia trees. Primroses and scillas also carpet the woodlands and small narcissus are dotted around the fountain lawn. Crocus ‘Pickwick’ can be seen under the lime tree on the east lawn.

Later in April, visitors can look forward to the amazing display of bluebells which can be best enjoyed via the circular woodland walk which also takes you past the solar powered renovated ice house. The naturalised flowering meadows with their fritillaries and buttercups are also a pretty sight. Hole Park’s website has a bluebell barometer page which is also updated with information on what else to see in the gardens throughout the seasons.

Thanks to an ambitious bulb planting programme last year, visitors coming to Hole Park Gardens in May can enjoy swathes of dark purple tulips ‘Queen of the Night’ in the rose garden and long borders. The pretty vineyard garden is worth a visit at the same time as it has the most unusual standard wisterias. A walk through the sundial garden leads to a striking new allium walk. Impressive rhododendrons and azaleas flower throughout the gardens in May when the wild orchids will start to flower in the meadows.

A circular network of hard paths enable visitors of all ages, including those with disabilities, to explore the gardens. Wheelchairs may be reserved free of charge and there are full disability WC facilities.

Admission is £7.00 for adults and £1 for children. The gardens are open 11 am to 6 pm.

Hole Park is situated four miles west of Tenterden on the B2086 between Rolvenden and Benenden.

For more information please visit www.holepark.com or telephone

01580 241344/241386.

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