Cotehele, the National Trust house, garden and estate in south east Cornwall is extending its annual Daffodil Weekend into a two week festival opening this Saturday.

Cotehele’s Head Gardener Dave Bouch said: ‘This year we’re complementing the weekend by celebrating spring through an extended Daffodil Festival. We’re planning our traditional daffodil displays but building in more hands-on activities for families to enjoy, plus we’re working with some new partners too. There are 250 varieties growing in the garden here and we think a weekend in March isn’t long enough to really celebrate them.’

A garden tour highlighting the different varieties of daffodils will take place on both Saturday and Sunday.

For the past few years the Cotehele team have decorated the archway into Hall Court with 3000 daffodils. This year, members from local NAFAS (National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies) groups will be adding their creative touch to the weekend, creating daffodil installations around the garden. There will be eight sculptures, each celebrating an element of Cotehele’s landscape.

The Packing Shed will be decorated with thousands of daffodils blooms by the Tamar Valley AONB to raise awareness of their Heralds of Spring project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to record and raise awareness of the special historic daffodil varieties growing in the Tamar Valley landscape.

Daffodil festivities run from 10am-4pm each day until March 24. For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cotehele.