Cascade of carnations among the 10,000 flowers in Castle Howard's displays

Professional florist Catherine Gledhill has designed the centrepiece, a cascade of 3,000 carnations, crystals and tiny gypsophila blooms, along with the displays in each of the areas open to the public at the North Yorkshire stately home.

A team of 30 volunteer arrangers including demonstrators, judges, speakers and teachers from the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) from as far afield as Chester, Gateshead and Derbyshire, helped create the Castle Howard In Bloom displays.

Ms Gledhill, who is from Huddersfield and owned The Greenhouse in her home town before becoming involved in the NAFAS, said: “I was honoured to be invited to design this year’s Castle Howard in Bloom 10 months ago, and a huge amount of planning has gone into creating innovative, contemporary designs which reflect and complement the spaces in which they are placed. The festival itself runs for four days, and we have just two days to create the main pieces in each room ahead of our opening – a real challenge, but one to which our team of volunteers has risen admirably.”

There will be demonstrations on each of the four days of the festival showcasing different styles of flower arranging. A series of free displays and talks will also take place during the festival, which begins today and runs until Sunday, including a tour of the estate with Castle Howard’s new head of landscape and gardens, Alastair Gunn.

More details are available at www.castlehoward.co.uk or by calling 01653 648621.