Spring is here – this is where to see the best blooms
The blooms and views at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens are a national seasonal highlight. Photo: Instagram/Royal Botanic Gardens
Connecting us to the season and nature at its most beautiful, spring blossoms are a key event for garden and nature lovers, photographers and romantics.
Think sweeping clouds of cherry blossom, bursts of bulbs, but also golden canola fields, wildflower meadows, rhododendron gardens and jacaranda-lined streets.
With the blossom season a narrow window of opportunity, it’s important to plan in advance. In aid of that, The New Daily has compiled a list of key dates, events, top festivals and gardens nationwide. Get out your diary and dust off the picnic blanket.
NSW
Fields of Gold canola tour Cowra (until October 7)
Popular with photographers and three-and-a-half hours’ drive west of Sydney.
Cost: adults $50, children aged four and over $25
There’s golden canola fields as far as the eye can see in NSW during spring. Photo: Linda Moon
Mayfield Garden spring festival, Oberon (October 5-27)
Bring a hat and a spare four hours to ramble through the 75-hectare, cold-climate garden.
Cost: From $15
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, spring walk (until October)
Enjoy the annual display of flowering cherries, bulbs, wisteria, rhododendrons, may and more.
Cost: Free
Grafton Jacaranda Festival (October 25-November 3)
Includes art exhibitions, live music, markets, parades and more.
Cost: Free entry, additional for events
ACT
Tulip Top Gardens (until October 13)
Better than Floriade, this four-hectare garden comes alive with blossom, bulbs and classical music.
Cost: Adults $18
Floriade (until October 13)
Includes garden-themed workshops, food, wine, markets, entertainment and over one million bulbs on displays in Commonwealth Park.
Cost: Free
The annual Floriade festival in Canberra is more than just petals. Photo: Getty
Victoria
Tesselaar Tulip Festival (until October 13)
More than a million bulbs, plus food and entertainment in the Dandenong Ranges.
Cost: Adults $19-29, chidren under 16 free
Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden
The largest display of daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere, plus rhododendrons, cherries and more across 40 hectares. For what’s in bloom and when, visit the site.
Cost: Free
Enjoy the stunning wisteria arch and other blooms across the season.
Cost: Adults $10, children 16 and under free
The Alowyn Garden and Nursery in Yarra Glen. Photo: Supplied
Cloudehill Gardens, Olinda
Four romantic hectares of garden to explore in the Dandenong Ranges.
Cost: Adults $10, children free
Queensland
Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers (September 20-29)
Technically, the carnival might be over – say it ain’t so! – but Queensland’s garden city is still blooming with bulbs and flowering annuals (across the Botanic Gardens, Queens Park and Laurel Bank Park).
Cost: Free admission, extra for ticketed events
The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers celebrates all that blooms. Photo: Supplied
South Australia
Renmark Rose Festival (October 18-27)
Explore open gardens and events in the rose capital of Australia.
Cost: $2 donation per garden
Clare Valley canola fields
Drive through fields of gold and drop into one of the many wineries in the region. According to photographers, early spring is prime time for blooms.
Wander through the wisteria arch, rose garden, and more. Call the garden to see what’s blooming when.
Cost: Free
The heady scent of wisteria fills Adelaide’s Royal Botanic Gardens in spring. Photo: Supplied
Western Australia
Wildflowers (until late October)
The state hosts a mind-boggling 12,000 wildflower species. Get on a tour, or embark on your own floral hunt. Call the local visitors’ centre or use the WA Visitor Centre’s Wildflower Tracker.
To see spring flowers in Western Australia, just step outside – they’re everywhere. Photo: Linda Moon
Kings Park Festival Perth (September 1-30)
Again, you’ve actually missed this event. But you can still enjoy the wildflowers at Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, or join one of the free guided, educational walks.
Cost: Free
Tasmania
Table Cape Tulip Farm (until late October)
Located on the North-West Coast overlooking Bass Strait, the glorious 36-hectare bulb farm opens to the public every spring.
Cost: Adults $12, children $2.
Rows of tulips lead the eye to the rugged coastline at Table Cape Tulip Farm. Photo: Getty
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, Hobart
In spring, many of the gardens’ 6500 species of plants, including tulips, lillies and waratahs, show their true colours.
Cost: Free
Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden, Burnie (September to November)
Enjoy a rainbow of more than 22,000 rhododendrons and other flowers. Pop into the annual Cherry Blossom Celebration on October 19.
Cost: Adults $15 ($12 for the cherry blossom day), children enter free.
Northern Territory
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
Check out the tropical flowers that bloom during spring.
Cost: Free
