Six of the best: SPRING SPECTACLES

With a nod to hanami, Japan's annual cherry blossom celebration, Rhiannon Batten discovers the best UK spots to enjoy blossoming spring blooms

- Rhiannon Batten

Ulting Wick

An 11-acre Essex garden grafted into being over 25 years by owners Philippa and Bryan Burrough, Ulting Wick features impressive displays of dahlias, a wildflower meadow and more, but it's best known for its tulips. Thousands of bulbs are planted each November and December against a backdrop of listed black barns - most of them in colourful box parterre beds, but others in clusters of pink or white elsewhere. Yet more can be found billowing in naturalistic drifts alongside the garden's stream and pond. The garden is open in aid of the National Garden Scheme on a handful of dates through the year, but April visits understandably get snapped up quickly. ultingwickgarden.co.uk

Caerhays