It is not so much a climbing plant as a huge waterfall of colour. With its 4ft blooms, this magnificent wisteria attracts admiring visitors from miles around.

Alison and John Halliday run Knowle Park Cottage, near Bridport, Dorset, as a bed-and-breakfast.

They bought it a decade ago without realising they had acquired a floral superpower with a cottage attached.

Drop-dead gorgeous: Neighbour Andy Mair measures the Hallidays' 100-year-old wisteria that grows on their Dorset home

The Hallidays are signed up to the National Garden Scheme, and will be open for the public to visit on May 23.

Mrs Halliday, 59, said: 'We moved here during the winter months and the wisteria was obviously dormant then. It wasn't until a few months later it revealed itself in all its glory.'

'The first time my husband cut it back in August half the village came out to watch and we got comments like "I hope you know what you're doing."'

She added: 'I know this particular variety of wisteria is known for its long drops of flowers and we normally have blooms measuring 4ft.

'At this time of year it quite often grows over our windows and we have a job of looking out.

'People do come from all over to have a look at it and others who pass by tend to stop and stare. Some even measure the blooms.

'I feel sorry for our neighbour opposite because she has a raised garden and a lot of people ask for permission to go on her land photographs of it.'

The fragrant plant - wisteria floribunda - flowers for about a month at this time of year and requires pruning in February and August.

Purple rain: Alison Halliday measures the blooms that are already 3ft in length and could grow as long as 4ft

The Hallidays are signed up to the National Garden Scheme, and will open their land for the public to visit on May 23.

Gardeners planting wisteria, a plant native to China, are often initially disappointed by their lack of blossoms as they can take around ten years before they first bloom.

While spectacular, the Hallidays' climbers are mere tiddlers compared to the world champions.

The world's largest known wisteria vine is located in Sierra Madre, California, measuring more than an acre in size and weighing 250 tons.

Britain's oldest wisteria is thought to be at the Fuller's brewery in Chiswick, West London. It was planted in the early 19th century.

Adventurous gardeners have been known to cook wisteria flowers in oil to make fritters. They can also be used to make tea.

A word of warning, however: the seed pods of the plant are poisonous.

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