THE award-winning dahlia fields of Heddon have joined the region’s roll-call of tourist attractions.

For visitors have begun to travel to the North- East with the express intention of seeing the dahlias at Halls of Heddon’s nursery.

The bright blooms have long been a speciality at the family-run nursery, winning countless awards over the years.

And at the recent Harrogate Autumn Flower Show, Halls of Heddon picked up a premier gold award for its stand of 60 varieties of dahlia.

The nursery has been showing dahlias in Harrogate since before the official launch of the show in the 1950s.

David Hall said: “We’ve had hundreds of visitors in the last couple of weeks.

“They’ve come from every corner of the country, as well as from Holland and Denmark. And what is interesting is that people have made a point of visiting the North-East with the primary reason of seeing the dahlias.

“We’re very much reliant on the weather with the dahlias.

“We only cut the flowers two or three days before a show and this year, we had two days of rain before Harrogate. We weren’t expecting much, so to receive an award is great.”