Flower tourism comes alive during the spring and summer. With so many different kinds of wild flora, it’s difficult to decide where best to spend your time watching the flowers bloom. Amongst the thousands of festivals, gardens, and fields, we determined that the following are well worth the trip.
To celebrate the end of winter, visit one of these incredible places to watch the flowers bloom.
The Wildflower Festival: Crested Butte, Colorado
Via rove.me
Nestled in the West Elk mountains, the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival puts on a show after the ski-slopes close. For two weeks in July, you can experience fantastic garden tours. While the billow crest of multicolored wildflowers is amazing on its own, the alpine sunflowers at the top of the mountain are a real treat. You can take some of them home at the end of the season, but if you can’t make the trip, order online through Bouqs’ same-day sunflower bouquet delivery.
Farm Tomita: Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan
At the tippy top of Japan lies the Hokkaido Prefecture, which is more famous for its Winter activities than anything you can experience in the sun. However, Farm Tomita is filled with lavender, red and orange poppies, baby’s breath, and pink garden catch flies every Spring despite the dip in tourism. The dazzling rainbow scenery is so gorgeous, you may think it’s photoshopped, but many locals and tourists swear that this spot is one of Northern Japan’s best-kept secrets.
Flower Island (Blumeninsel): Mainau Island, Germany
Off the coast of Zurich, Germany, is the affectionately dubbed Flower Island, or Mainau Island, to foreigners. The small island has 45 hectares (111 acres) of gardens and landscaped grounds, which start to bloom around March until May. Tulips are first to the party, followed by rhododendrons, and finally, the last 350,000 summer blooms sprout. You can still catch Dahlias in September, but the garden wraps up in late October, though you can still see palm trees.
Monet’s Garden: Giverny, France
Claude Monet was a famous 19th-century impressionist painter who drew water-lily pads in his back garden. Immortalized by his Nympheas paintings alone, Monet moved the art world forward by centuries, and you can visit his house at Giverny. Both the Clos Normandy, which contains poppies, daisies, and rose trees, and the famous Water Garden are open for tours. His house is covered in vines and moss, but the interior is still well-maintained to this day.
Chiang Mai Flower Festival: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Via 2ristapp.com
On the first weekend of February, the festival begins in Chiang Mai by displaying chrysanthemums and the Damask Rose. The festival’s focus is the Suan Buak Haad public garden, which contains a moat and various local florals. At the festival, vendors will sell orchids, flowers, plants, and garden decorations. During the parade, you can watch Miss Chiang Mai be crowned amongst a dancing crowd who are throwing petals of various flowers all around.
Cape Floral Kingdom: Cape Town, South Africa
Via capetown.travel/discover-fynbos-in-cape-town
The Cape Floral Kingdom spans 18 biodiversity hotspots in South Africa, and one of its most popular starting points is at the state’s capital at Cape Town. As a UNESCO heritage site, most of the flowers are protected by the country, but you can still see many of the endangered floras from inside your car. If you travel along the N7 highway, you’ll see all of the flower spots (and the King Protea), including Namaqua National Park, where the flower fields expand for miles.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden: Texas, USA
The captivating beauty of the oldest botanic garden in Texas is stunning. Home to more than 2,500 species of plants in its 23 specialty gardens, Fort Worth’s Botanic Gardens are like stepping into a fairytale.
Long celebrated for its beautiful tropical, rose, and Japanese gardens, the FWBG is composed of twenty-five specialty garden spaces, including a tropical conservatory, a public perennial trial garden, and naturalized areas and vistas.
