9 flower festivals to visit in your lifetime
The best way to celebrate spring? Stopping and smelling not just the roses, but also the lilacs, tulips and cherry blossoms.
If you can’t get enough of spring blossoms in bloom, we’ve rounded up nine flower festivals that are bidding for your attention! They’re sorted in order of when they are happening.
1. Epcot International Flower And Garden Festival
Where: Orlando, Florida
When: Feb. 28 to May 28, 2018
Traipse through topiary gardens featuring your family’s favorite characters expertly carved into shrubs at this festival inside Walt Disney World’s Epcot resort. You’ll find topiary renditions of Anna and Elsa from “Frozen,” Bambi and friends, Buzz Lightyear from “Toy Story” and more. Plus, the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival features internationally inspired gardens throughout the park, including a Bonsai collection reminiscent of Japan and an English tea garden.
2. Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
Where: Skagit Valley, Washington
When: April 1-30, 2018
Millions of tulips bloom in Washington state’s Skagit Valley each spring, and the Pacific Northwest spends an entire month throwing a flower fête for tulip fans. Wine festivals, galas, parades, art shows and photography contests are all a part of the month-long event celebrating the tulips. Two can’t-miss destinations during the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival are RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town, gardens that are filled with more than a million tulips!
3. Azalea Festival
Where: Muskogee, Oklahoma
When: April 1 to 30, 2018
Every April, Muskogee’s Honor Heights Park turns into a gorgeous garden of blooms. The festival features more than 30,000 azaleas covering at least 600 varieties of the flower. There are also plenty of dogwoods, redbuds and other flowers, as well as carriage rides, crafts and other entertainment throughout the month.
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4. Tulip Time Festival
Where: Holland, Michigan
When: May 5 to 13, 2018
No need to pull out your passport and travel all the way to the Netherlands to see gorgeous rows of tulips. Michigan also has its own Holland, which is home to the annual Tulip Time Festival featuring thousands of tulips, rounded out with windmills and Dutch dance. The festival’s roots date back to 1929 when the city of Holland, Michigan planted its first crop of 100,000 tulips.
5. Rochester Lilac Festival
Where: Rochester, New York
When: May 11 to 20, 2018
Highland Park in upstate New York boasts the largest collection of lilacs in the United States, with more than 500 varieties on 1,200 plants. During the Rochester Lilac Festival, the fragrant flowers share the spotlight with pansies, tulips and azaleas, which can also be found in the gardens.
6. Portland Rose Festival
Where: Portland, Oregon
When: May 25 to June 10, 2018
More than a century old, the Portland Rose Festival now features a treasure hunt, dragon boat races and parades. When it first started, festival organizers imagined the rose celebration would put Portland on the map as the “summer capital of the world.”
Today, the festival has evolved into a large summer festival, but the roses still shine at a rose show that showcases award-winning roses.
7. Mackinac Island Lilac Festival
Where: Mackinac Island, Michigan
When: June 8 to 17, 2018
Horse-drawn carriages add charm to Mackinac Island’s garden party. The lilac festival is the first of many celebrations during the summer season. If chocolate is more your thing, there’s also a fudge festival in August.
8. Crested Butte Wildflower Festival
Where: Crested Butte, Colorado
When: July 6 to 15, 2018
The blooms don’t stop in the spring. The wildflowers in Colorado’s mountain towns peak in the summer, with the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival devoted to celebrating the blooms with hikes, walks, photography workshops and garden tours.
9. Brussels Flower Carpet
Where: Brussels, Belgium
When: Aug. 16 to 19, 2018
You’d have to leave the country for this one, but it’s a must-see for flower lovers. More than 6,000 flowers bloom and form an ornate flower carpet at the Grand Palace in Brussels. The Brussels Flower Carpet is a multi-sensory experience with the sight complemented by the scents of begonias and music in the evenings.
Bonus Pick: While the 2018 National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. has already closed for the year, the beautiful blooms of the city’s signature cherry blossoms will be visible throughout April. If you’re visiting, be sure to stop by the monuments of the Tidal Basin to get some gorgeous views of them.
Do you have a favorite flower to see bloom this time of year?
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