White Cottage, Stock Green, near Inkberrow, B96 6SZ, 01386 792414. Admission £2.50, children free, concessions £2.

A TWO-acre garden featuring a wild flower meadow will open to the public next weekend as part of the National Garden Scheme.

Visitors will be able to wander between various areas, but it will be the spring wild flower meadow filled with fritillaries and primroses, which will be most enchanting.

Gardeners Janet and Melvyn Bates have been slowly transforming their garden since they moved in 27 years ago, then it was just rough ground and their elderly gardener cut the grass using a scythe.

Hellebores now flower under established silver birch trees and chaenomeles, pulmonaries and pink magnolia add colour to the garden.

A stream garden is one of the areas carved out by Mr Bates from a dry ditch and a pond sits in the site of a former rose garden.

"It is very established now and it all flows so you do not notice you are going from one area to another," Mrs Bates said. A rose arch leads invitingly into the old orchard which is still home to a couple of old fruit trees, and roses can also be admired in the small rose garden.

To add character to the garden, the old well, surrounded by a rockery, is still used to water the plants.

As part of the National Garden Scheme, White Cottage will be open to the public between 10am and 5pm on Saturday, May 3, Sunday, May 4, Monday, May 5, Saturday, May 17, Saturday, May 24, and Sunday, May 25. It is also open on selected dates in June and July.

OTHER GARDENS OPEN FROM SATURDAY, MAY 3Gladderbrook Farm, High Oak, Heightington, DY12 2YR. Admission £3, children free. 01299 879923.

One-acre garden with unusual trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses. There is also a two-acre spring meadow. Open on Sunday, May 4, from noon to 4pm.

Honeybrook House Cottage, Honeybrook Lane, Kidderminster, DY11 5QS. Admisssion £3.50, children free. 01562 67939. www.cottagegarden.org.uk.

A cottage garden with prairie garden, wildlife pond and long tree-lined walk. Open Sunday, May 4, noon to 5pm.

Whitcombe House, Overbury, near Tewkesbury, GL20 7NZ. Admission £4, children free. 01386 725206.

A colourful garden of peace and tranquillity framed by rose-clad cotswold dry-stone walls. Open Sunday, May 4, from 2pm to 5pm.

Gadfield Elm House, Malvern Road, Staunton, GL19 3PA. Admission £2, children free.

Vistas, temples, statues, herbaceous borders and a field walk. Open Monday, May 5, from 2pm to 6pm.

Little Malvern Court, Little Malvern, WR14 4JN. Admission £4.50, children 50p. 01684 892988.

Ten acres of garden with some magnificent views over Severn Valley. Open on Monday, May 5, from 2pm to 5pm.

Red House Farm, Flying Horse Lane, Bradley Green, B96 6QT. Admission £2, children free. 01527 821269. www.redhousefarmgardenandnursery.co.uk.

Paths wind through borders exquisitely planted with matyre trees, shrubs, roses, climbers and spring bulbs. Open Thursday, May 8, from 10am to 5pm.

Shuttifield Cottage, Birchwood, Storridge, WR13 5HA. Admission £3.50, children free. 01886 884243.

A three-acre garden with extensive herbaceous borders and many unusual trees. Open on Saturday, May 3 and Saturday, May 24, from 1pm to 5.30pm.