Five flower festivals to visit this spring

There’s something about masses of colourful blooms that sets the heart racing. Whether it’s a small town’s botanic gardens, a commercial grower’s fields or a full-on display of the best that floral architects have to offer, this is the perfect time to get the family into the car and head out and have a look at one of these flower festivals.

For many Melbournians a trip out to Tesselaar’s tulip farm is a pilgrimage. Not only is it a nice drive across the Dandenongs but with about a million spring bulbs flowering (yes, you read that right) the fields are certainly colourful and spectacular. The festival runs for a month and there’s plenty of entertainment including Dutch and Turkish themed weekends, an old-time rock festival, special kids’ events and a weekend of food, wine and jazz.

As arguably Australia’s biggest horticultural event Floriade deserves its annual place in the nation’s capital. Maybe it’s because Canberra can get pretty cold in winter, but come springtime the city is ready to celebrate and Commonwealth Park certainly turns on the colour. There’s lots of flowers, but also workshops, food and drink, cultural events and plenty more. Turn up after dark for the NightFest and enjoy a band, or head out into some of Canberra’s satellite towns for Floriade in the Suburbs.

Toowoomba’s temperate climate might be a big change from tropical Queensland but it means that plants thrive and the town has gained a “Garden City” reputation. As if to emphasize that, this annual carnival (it started in 1949) held in late September is a riot of colour as Toowoomba’s public gardens go on display. There are garden tours, foodie events, picnics and of course, the grand street parade. All at a time when the flowers are out, so don’t miss it.

Spring is a lovely time in the rolling green hills of the Southern Highlands. For a giant splash of extra colour though, Bowral puts on its Tulip Time Festival, with some 90,000 bulbs blooming around the town. The centrepiece is the Corbett Gardens with its massed tulip plantings, market stalls, musical entertainment and even a Mary Poppins theme, celebrating the early life in Bowral of author PL Travers. There are plenty of open gardens in and around town to inspect as well.

If you’re in Wynyard on Tasmania’s north-west coast on October 12, you’ll be lucky enough to catch the biggest day of this tulip festival that takes the form of a foreshore market with stalls selling bulbs and lots of other goodies. But the market is only part of a bigger picture in what has been called Tulip Town. Head out to Table Cape Tulip Farm from late September to early October and you can wander hectares of colourful blooms, browse the floral arrangements or finish with a yummy Devonshire tea.

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