BLOOMS at the Garden House, near Buckland Monachorum, have exceeded all expectations so far this year.

New head gardener Matt Bishop, whose first season this is, said it had really been an extraordinary spring.

'To start with, everything bloomed much earlier than any of our records show. Then we had a really remarkable display of bulbs,' said Matt.

He said the Dog's tooth violets, planted by his predecessor Keith Wiley, had bloomed in unprecedented numbers and quality. Now there was a fine display of wisteria, rhododenrons were continuing and there were even some camellias still in bloom.

Some of the rarer items, such as the vivid orange Chilean flame tree, are also looking stunning too, he said, putting the explosion of colour down to an exceptionally dry summer last year, followed by a fairly wet winter and early spring.