April at Furzey Gardens

30 March 2021

Longer daylight hours and warm spring sunshine, inbetween rain showers, mean that the gardens are really beginning to wake up from their winter slumber.

April is an exciting month at Furzey Gardens as the colours on display become more varied and particularly vibrant.

As you enter the gardens, the view across the top lawn hints at the delights which await you on your stroll around the gardens. In bloom during the earlier part of the month are our magnificent magnolia trees, including magnolia stellata and magnolia kobus, the flowers dance brightly as their branches sway gently in the breeze.

Around the garden you can begin to enjoy the riot of colour from our collection of azaleas and rhododendrons.

Of particular note are the rose pink flowers of our rhododendron racemosum, violet blue thanks to our augustinii rhododendron and blood red blooms of rhododendron thomsonii.

We have continued to cut back and clear some older plants too, so you will see plenty of smaller  specimens enjoying their moment to shine.

One of the standout blooms in Furzey this month is the taihaku ‘Great White Cherry Blossom Tree’.  Also look out for amelanchier lamarckii (sometimes called juneberry) in full bloom and a range of flowering apples, including the malus robusta.

If you want to strike up all of your senses, then you should pay our osmanthus delavayi a visit. They have white, jasmine-like flowers, produce the most incredible smell and are very attractive to butterflies.

Finally, welcoming yellow tones come in the form of our corylopsis collection, forsythia, and the last of our daffodil display contrasting brilliantly with the purple and pinks on display from our azaleas and rhododendrons. Don’t miss the delicate tiny flowers of the Azara microphylla which emits a beautiful chocolatey scent which drifts across the gardens on a sunny day.

There are plenty of other wonders to enjoy as you stroll around the gardens this April, pick up a copy of our Spring Plants of Interest at the welcome hut, or in the tea rooms.

The gardens and tea rooms are open seven days a week all the way through to October now, so we hope you will find a convenient day to come and enjoy a relaxing wander around our woodland garden.

Kids can follow our spring trail and discover some of the fairies favourite places around the garden. The trail costs £2 per trail, collect the letters to spell out a word and claim a tasty treat in the tea rooms at the end. Trail sheets are available from the welcome host on entrance or at the tea rooms.

Book your tickets here.