Hever in Bloom, Hever Castle & Garden’s annual gardening event, will have a poetic dimension this year as the gardening team will be honouring British literary heroes of the last 200 years.

Visitors to the event will be able to experience the quintessential English Rose Garden at the height of its summer beauty with free guided tours of the award-winning Gardens and daily garden talks. Many of the Castle rooms will be filled with English floral arrangements created by in-house florist Pamela Brise themed around Hever Castle’s literary connections. Visitors will also be able to take one of the daily floristry workshops during ‘Hever in Bloom’.

VisitEngland has declared 2017 to be the ‘Year of Literary Heroes’ and Hever’s amazing formal and informal gardens will help to highlight literary milestones of the last 200 years.

Poetry specific to the roses and to the 200th anniversary celebrations will be hidden among the 4,000 roses in the Italian garden and rose garden built by William Astor in 1904. Visitors will be able to seek out quotes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward Thomas, Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë, Jane Austen and Daphne Du Maurier. Garden tours will take place daily.

Bringing the story right up to date, a floral display beside the Yew Maze will be appropriately planted in the shape of Harry Potter’s world-famous glasses and Gryffindor scarf. Children can then race through the maze and visit the topiary chess pieces reminiscent of the enormous chess pieces in ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’.

The eleven-strong gardening team at Hever Castle in Kent are gearing up for this year’s Hever in Bloom by reading up on the literary heroes associated with Visit England’s event.

Neil Miller, head gardener at Hever Castle & Gardens said: “If I were being poetic myself I’d have to say that Hever in June is Hever in Bloom! The gardens are just perfect at this time of year. In the words of Arthur Conan Doyle – “What a lovely thing a rose is!” Visitors will be blown away by the scent in the rose garden and visitors who wouldn’t usually venture further afield than the Italian Garden will be encouraged to explore the new shrub rose border inspired by the poetry of New England author Emily Dickinson.”

Hever In Bloom promises a packed itinerary this year. Neil Miller added: “There’s so much to do this year, visitors can enjoy our daily garden tours (lasting approximately 45mins – 1 hour) and hear about the history of the garden and learn in-house plant husbandry tips! There is also a series of garden talks and demonstrations given by local gardening experts on topics such as gardening for wildlife, poisons and potions (which Harry Potter himself would love!), plants for free, vegetative propagation, climbing plants and shady gardening. Talks take place at 13:00 and 15:00 and vary daily.”

The gardens at Hever were designed and built in 1904 -1908 to showcase William Waldorf Astor’s unique collection of statuary and sculpture which stretches to 200 pieces, some of them over 2,000 years old.