TWO Borders Gardens are set to show off their horticultural delights as they take part in this year’s Scottish Rhododendron Festival.

Dawyck Botanic Garden and Abbotsford will be representing the Borders in the annual festival, returning for its fifth year, which runs from April 1 to May 31.

The Scottish Rhododendron Festival is organised by national garden tourism group Discover Scottish Gardens, with support from VisitScotland, and comprises more than fifty events across the country.

Dawyck Botanic Garden, described by VisitScotland as “a delight for Rhododendron enthusiasts”, features an array of specimens gathered from the wild, with some now over 100 years old.

Abbotsford, the ancestral home of Sir Walter Scott, will be running exclusive tours for the festival between May 1 and May 15.

Paula Ward, VisitScotland Regional Leadership Director, hopes the participation of the two gardens will be of benefit to the entire region. She said: “I’m thrilled to see that Dawyck Botanic Garden and Abbotsford are taking part in the Scottish Rhododendron Festival.

“With the weather getting warmer, visitors will be able to see this magnificent plant flower as well as enjoy all that these attractions have to offer.

“These visitors represent a major benefit to the region.

“Tourism is more than a holiday experience, it is the heartbeat of the Scottish economy and touches every community, generating income, jobs and social change.”

Borderers may already have noticed an abundance of flowering Rhododendrons, with many species flowering early this year due to unseasonably warm weather.

David Knott, curator at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, a world centre for rhododendron studies, said: “The warmer temperatures we have been experiencing provide optimum conditions for these exotic shrubs, originally from the East, to thrive.

“The unusual weather and early flowering also highlight the impact of climate change on plants and flowering behaviour - a situation we will continue to monitor at the Botanics.”