AN AWARD-winning garden stocked with plants from the Himalayan region is set to open following a major development project.

Visitors to the 20-acre Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park in Grewelthorpe, North Yorkshire from April 25 will be invited to walk on new paths offering views of the North’s largest collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias and 60 sculptures.

An artwork titled Sunrise, by leading figurative sculptor David Williams-Ellis, will take centre stage in the newly restored lake.

The gardens attract 10,000 visitors each Spring feature nearly 20,000 plants, including 1,400 rhododendron varieties, 250 azalea varieties and 150 different magnolias set in a valley with scenic woodland walks.

The garden's owner, Peter Roberts, has been developing the attraction for more than a decade and has supported trips to the Himalayan area to add to the wild-origin plant material already in his collection, much of which had been supplied by eminent Himalayan plant hunter Alan Clark.

The garden, where former Brodick Castle head gardener Jens Nielsen has recently taken charge of the attraction, has also seen the creation of a pagoda, which was built in Bali, on the edge of a lake.