TENS of thousands of people have this month made the annual pilgrimage to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Visitors were promised an abundance of colourful, exotic, exciting, relaxing and sometimes madcap show gardens, yet always fragrant, vibrant, flawless displays.

But with spring in full swing and summer only just around the corner, you don’t have to travel all the way to London to get your horticultural fix.

The National Trust looks after not just some of the UK’s but the world’s greatest collection of gardens – with many of the most beautiful to be found here in Yorkshire. The garden at East Riddlesden Hall has been hailed by the National Trust as the best urban-rural retreat in Yorkshire.

The 17th century manor house is home to three types of garden – formal, wild and discovery. The formal aspect of the garden, with a cottage garden style planting scheme, includes a fragrant herb border which was originally planted to be used as the hall’s medicine cabinet.

Also planted are irises, delphiniums, alliums, phlox and lots of cottage style flowers, including mock range and monkshood.

The discovery garden is made for families and is home to a natural outdoor play area and hobbit house whilst the wild garden is an enclosed haven from the modern world.

With no buildings in sight or sounds from the road, take the time to sit, relax and listen to the birds. It’s also a tapestry of colour at this time of year.

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, the National Trust gardens range from magnificent stately home showpieces to formal green pleasure gardens, hidden woodland glades, tranquil wildflower meadows and sweeping landscapes.

Many of the National Trust’s Yorkshire gardens are at their best just now, with others on the verge of bursting into a blaze of late spring colour.

Best for spring colour is Beningbrough Hall, Gallery and Gardens in York.

Beningbrough boasts a garden for all seasons, but it truly comes to life from late spring. With just over eight acres of formal gardens to explore, a working walled kitchen garden, herbaceous borders, and parkland there’s something different guaranteed to catch the eye with every visit.

The best natural garden is Nunnington Hall, at Helmsley in North Yorkshire, home to an organic walled garden with spring-flowering meadows.

The garden has been managed fully organically since 2002, reviving traditional horticultural methods. Rather than eliminating pests and diseases the gardening team aim to maintain a natural balance.

The best garden for variety is Nostell Priory and Parkland, Wakefield, where visitors can stroll around the formal rose garden and kitchen garden or wander across to the west lawn which opens up to the parkland and menagerie garden. Visit nationaltrust.org.uk for further details of all the gardens.