A floral festival boasting 5,000 roses and a colourful quarter-mile border is celebrating its 10th birthday.

Hever in Bloom, an annual flower display at Hever Castle near Edenbridge, has been extended to two weeks this summer to celebrate its decade-long stint at the castle.

The fortnight will include tours around the award-winning gardens, including the romantic Rose Garden, the formal bedding of the Italian Garden and the newly-replanted Long Border.

Highlights of this year’s display are more than 5,000 roses blooming across the estate, the quarter-mile border in Faith’s Garden and the Emily Dickinson-inspired shrub rose border.

There will also be 300 Anne Boleyn roses, introduced by the former English queen who, along with her sister Mary, spent her childhood at the castle.

The gardens are also brimming with spring and summer flowers, such as pelargoniums, begonias, salvias, heliotrope, nemesia and marigolds.

During the festival, visitors can take part in botanical gin-tastings, hand-tied floral arrangement workshops and tours from the gardening team.

The event began in 2013, with a year’s break during the Covid pandemic, taking over the previous Rose Week at the castle.

Head gardener Neil Miller said: “It’s wonderful to celebrate a decade of Hever in Bloom this year and to be able to share the incredible floral displays throughout the grounds from the colour of the Rose Garden to the cool greens on shady Pergola Walk, from the bright bedding in the Italian Garden to the almost secret seclusion of Church Gill where newly planted alpines grow. The workshops and floral tours will surely mean we will have a fortnight to remember!”

Hever in Bloom takes place from Monday, June 24 to Sunday, July 7 at Hever Castle. You can book tickets online here.

The event is included in the price of a standard entry ticket.