Beautiful Spring Flower Gardens

Spring is a time of awakening in the natural world and the perfect opportunity to shake off the winter and explore a beautiful natural space, whether in the depths of the countryside or in a green oasis within a busy city.

If you are travelling somewhere new, visiting a garden can inject a dose of relaxation and escapism into your break. Whether you’re on the hunt for bluebells or blossom, we take a look at some of the best places to get your floral fix this spring. Read on to find out where to look for the world’s finest floral displays.

Holland’s national flower can be found in abundance at the Keukenhof garden in Lisse. With over 300 varieties of tulip on display, the gardens come alive at the start of spring as ‘tulipmania’ sets in. Keukenhoff hosts events to celebrate the spring season throughout March and April, including food festivals, flower markets and a flower parade which features colourful floats made of spring bulbs. 

Cherry blossom, or ‘sakura’ as it’s known in Japan, appears for a beautiful but brief period, usually during the first weeks of April. Visitors to Japan can partake in ‘hanami’, the Japanese custom of enjoying the cherry blossom, often with a picnic party underneath the cherry trees. Hirosaki Castle Park is an impressive place to take in the cherry blossom, with a sea of blooms on display throughout the entirety of the garden and pink petals floating on the castle’s moat. 

Dallas Blooms is the largest floral festival in South of USA and has been running from late February to April for thirty years. Held at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, a 66 acre garden visited by nearly 1 million people every year, Dallas Blooms features thousands of spring flowers, including tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, pansies and violas. The festival closes with a spectacular display of 3000 azaleas, flowering at the end of April.

Kew Gardens delivers a celebration of spring each year, with bulbs and blossom in every variety gracing its botanic gardens and greenhouses. It is also the perfect place to experience bluebell season, with the blue flowers taking over Kew’s woodland conservation areas from April. Visit between mid-March and mid-April to join Kew’s Easter celebrations, including a Lindt bunny trail and chocolate making workshops.

The Val D’Orcia region of Tuscany is rightfully a year-round tourist hotspot, famous for its rolling hills and cliff-top medieval towns. In the late springtime, the Val D’Orcia truly comes alive with a vibrant display of poppies; the bright red flowers speckle the green valleys for a few short weeks. The sight of wildflowers among the wheat fields and olive groves is an unmissable spring display, and this view has unsurprisingly been the inspiration behind many of the world’s most celebrated works of art.

Dubai is renowned for taking everything to the extreme, whether it be 163 storey skyscrapers, 7* hotels or 13 million square foot shopping centres. True to form, the Dubai Miracle Garden boasts over 45 million flowers - not bad considering it’s positioned in an arid desert. Flowers sculpted into hearts, stars and arches are hydrated through drip irrigation and the re-use of waste water, ensuring the garden is as (should be always) kept in bloom despite the heat. The Miracle Garden is open until late every day; visit after dark to see the spectacular floral displays illuminated.