IT is best known for the image of Gold Hill in the Hovis advert, but Shaftesbury is fast becoming a destination for horticulturalists.

The town's annual Snowdrop Festival is now underway, with locals and visitors alike visiting to view vast arrays of the pretty white flower from now until mid-March.

The event, organised by project leader Pam Cruickshank and her team of volunteers, began in 2012 to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee, and has grown to include an annual lantern parade through the town, community planting days and even an art exhibition.

Pam said: "The first flowering of the snowdrops in Shaftesbury was in 2013. So this is the seventh year of the snowdrops flowering. We've had a series of events happening in the town to bring the community out to enjoy it and ever year since then we've planted more snowdrops.

"The first planting happened in March 2012 as the Mayor's Civic Day. We had the Mayors and the Mayoresses from all around Dorset and Somerset and Wiltshire. So they came and they all turned up with snowdrops to plant.

It was a gloriously sunny day at the end of March. Those snowdrops are thriving."

Tens of thousands of snowdrops have since been planted in various sites throughout the town, with primary schools, nursery schools and community groups all involved in the event.

Pam and her team hope the annual event will continue to bring visitors to the town during the quieter time between Christmas and Easter.

Those who attend the festival can also see rare varieties of the flower on display at Shaftesbury Abbey, which opens for eight days during the event, and enjoy work on display at the town's Arts Centre.

Pam added: "We now have over 150 varieties in our own collection of snowdrops. We put on a very good display every year and we get snowdrop enthusiasts from all over the UK, America, Dutch, Swiss, Italian, Belgians. We had people coming from all over the place to Shaftesbury for this event."

Visit shaftesburysnowdrops.org to find out more about what's on during this year's festival.