AN extravaganza of Spring colour will draw the crowds from next weekend when thousands and thousands of a single type of plant go on display.

The annual Tulip Festival at the award-winning Burnby Hall Gardens just east of York will run from April 22 to May 6.

Thousands of visitors are expected to flock to the horticultural site in Pocklington to see more than 18,000 tulips at their best.

More than 130 varieties of tulips will provide a kaleidoscope of colour and variations on the iconic tulip form.

The display is the culmination of months of planning and preparation by the site’s head gardener Jill Ward and her team.

As well as planting them in displays they also underplant the tulips below other plants that come into their best later in the year.

Away from the main display flower beds the tulips will  be on display in formal tubs.

Burnby Hall Gardens have won the Yorkshire in Bloom Gold Award seven times consecutively and are home to the national collection of hardy water lilies.

Eighty varieties of  water lillies bloom on the site’s upper and lower lakes between June and August.