Spring is here and so are the flowers, so have a look at these dazzling displays
There’s no getting around it: winters in the UK are bleak. From October until March things are pretty much forever grey, damp and cold, and don’t get us started on the 4pm darkness. But hey, maybe it’s all worth the wait when spring shines its golden, warm(ish) rays and those pink little flowers we all know and love reawaken from their seasonal slumber. That’s right: cherry blossom season is nearly here, folks. And it’s back to save us all.
While peak blossom season normally starts in April and lasts through May, climate change has slowly been pushing the peak back, so don’t be surprised if you stumble on full bloomin’ trees as early as mid-March. Lucky for us, the UK offers some gorgeous green spaces for cherry blossom devotees, and we’ve rounded up the best, from Scottish parks to Cumbrian castles.
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Ella Doyle is Time Out’s guides editor for the UK and Europe, based in London. At Time Out, all of our guides are written by experts. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.
Best for: an iconic London day out
London’s botanical HQ is packed with floral wonders come spring. Make time for its Cherry Walk, starting at the Rose Garden at the back of Palm House, which is full of Japanese cherries. Two parallel rows with 15 trees apiece form a blushing runway to Temperate House. Go in April and they’ll also be accompanied by a thousand tulips.
Best for: a family day out
Known locally as ‘The Glen’, this park near Fife is a green idyll with woodland walks, tropical glasshouses and a little museum full of natural history specimens. Its cherry tree-lined avenues are a haze of pink in spring, and if you’re after even more of the Asian vibes, there’s also a Japanese Garden with a Kyoto-style bridge and summerhouse. As you wander, look out for the park’s resident peacocks – there are nine.
Best for: a historical stroll
You’ll find candyfloss archways of perfect blossom all over The Stray: a 200-acre stretch of parkland in Yorkshire’s regal spa town. Planted in 1953 to celebrate the Queen’s coronation, the blossoms are usually joined by patches of jewel-bright crocuses and sunshine daffodils in spring.
Best for: catching some wildlife
The fleeting, ethereal beauty of cherry blossom deserves a grand setting, and they don’t come much more opulent than a fourteenth-century castle on the edge of the Lake District. While ‘the stumpery’ doesn’t sound particularly enthralling, that’s where you’ll find Sizergh’s colourful collection of cherry trees. Not only are they a sweet sight for the eyes, they’re also a treat for the castle’s populations of bees and songbirds, as well as badgers and voles who wolf down fruit that drops to the ground.
Best for: a break from the big city
South London’s Royal Park is home to one of the best collections of cherry trees in the capital. Just beyond the cricket pitch is a road lined with the trees that leads straight to a Georgian villa called Ranger’s House. The blooming branches create a bubblegum arch that makes every picture look like the backdrop of a Wes Anderson film.
Best for: stunning scenery
Set on its very own peninsula with panoramic views over the Fal estuary, the air of this Cornish garden is filled with sweet wafts as the cherry and apple trees dotted around the headland burst into bloom. Capture that perfect picture at the Water Tower: a turreted cylinder that looks straight out of a fairytale and is surrounded by delicate white blossoms come April.
Best for: a spot for a picnic
In-the-know picnickers will be familiar with this little oasis smack bang in the middle of Cardiff’s Civic Centre. Filled with landscaped gardens and surrounded by majestic Portland stone buildings, including City Hall and the National Museum, this elegant park is a picturesque spot no matter what time of year. But it’s spring when it really comes into its own, when the tree-lined avenues blush pink.
Best for: a break from the hills
Unlike the much more sculpted and hilly Princes Street Gardens at the very centre of Edinburgh, this flat expanse of grass to the south of the city is special for its sheer wide-openness. That also means plenty of space for lines of cherry trees that take over the park as soon as they get their annual dusting of pink. Seeing the delicate blossom in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat is a truly jaw-dropping sight.
Best for: an award-winning display
This lovely university campus claims around 600 acres of Staffordshire countryside, and it’s got cherry blossom trees in abundance. Boasting a whopping 283 varieties, the pretty pink branches can be found throughout the site in the springtime, but Cherry Tree Walk is the best spot for the display. The collection was awarded National Collection status by Plant Heritage back in 2012, and it’s not hard to see why.
Best for: a round-the-world journey
Perched on a wooded hill overlooking the Bristol Channel, Dunster Castle (which has been around since Norman times) is an impressive sight. Equally spectacular are its gardens, which take visitors through four different microclimates reflecting different areas of the world. In the River Garden – representing the UK’s own climate – you’ll find flowering cherry trees with flamingo blossoms perched beguilingly above the wild wooded undergrowth.
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