In the week when then Chelsea Flower Show would have normally taken place, the dynamic heritage group, Cumbria’s Living Heritage, put on a virtual Cumbrian flower shower.

May is the month in which many of the heritage gardens in the group are blooming with colours thanks to azaleas, rhododendrons, roses and glorious and unusual poppies.

While gardeners might be missing out on the actual shows, the visual displays the Cumbria flowers show took place via social media posts.

From images of natural fellside gardens full of ferns and wild strawberries to statuesque alliums at Askham Hall near Penrith – the symbol of the Grade II-listed gardens an array of pictures were posted.

Various Cumbrian gardens are known for their stunning azaleas and rhododendrons, not least Holker Hall and Gardens, where these plants frame the BBC Countryfile Garden of the Year 2016, and not forgetting Muncaster Gardens.

The photos from Mirehouse show that the Cumbrian Flower Show offering there includes beautiful trees in blossom and striking primroses, whilst the wisteria surrounding the door of Rydal Mount, another former home of William Wordsworth, provides an uplifting May image that projects a rural idyll.

Other gardens along what Cumbria’s Living Heritage calls its ‘Garden Line’ – one of the themed lines on its virtual ‘Heritage Cumberground’ – also have plants, flowers and garden walks normally thrilling visitors at this time of year. For now, however, garden lovers will have to be content with the images they can see, admire and like on the group’s social media channels.

Chairman of the group, Peter Frost-Pennington, said: “Restrictions may have been lifted on gardening centres but not on our heritage garden, I’m afraid.

“For now all we can do is continue to keep in touch with garden lovers and life their spirits with images of what is growing and blooming right now in the moment.

“We hope our Cumbrian flower show will be a source of delight and enable people to bookmark certain gardens that they can visit at some time in the future when life returns to something approaching normality.”

With online visits possible, garden lovers can look at the websites of the featured heritage gardens by visiting www.cumbriaslivingheritage.co.uk.