Visit Floriade - Australia's Biggest Flower Festival

Spring is a great time to visit Canberra. Located halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra is the nation's capital. The climate in Canberra is more extreme than Sydney; its elevation means it gets much colder in winter and frequently gets snow, while its inland situation makes it hotter and dryer in summer. Spring however is a lovely time of year to visit.

Situated on the man-made Lake Burley Griffin Canberra was the fledgling nations' answer to the struggle between Sydney and Melbourne over which city should be Australia's capital. As a young, small and planned city, Canberra offers visitors parks and gardens, museums and galleries with much of the focus on the lake at the heart of the city and the hills that form its fringe.



Rowers Training in Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra, Australia Photographic Print
Dennis Jones
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Floriade is Australia's biggest flower festival. A month long celebration of Spring, Floriade is held in Commonwealth Park near the banks of Lake Burley Griffin. The centrepiece of the festival is the huge tulip bed which is a mosaic of colour forming symbols and patterns in a spectacular display.

According to Floriade's official website "Over 1 million bulbs and annuals are used each year, depending on the design. The bulbs and annuals are planted in autumn each year. Different flowers bloom at different times but there's always great colour throughout the event. It is constantly changing as the different plants come into flower, so visit a few times if you can. A mix of flowers, predominantly bulbs create the kaleidoscope of colours that set the backdrop to Floriade. Some of the blooms include tulips, irises, daffodils, hyacinths, violas, chrysanthemums, ranunculas and daisies."

In 2009 the displays were made up of the following:-

Hyacinths 13 varieties
Tulips 87 varieties
Irises 9 varieties
Muscari 2 varieties
Scilla (blue bells) 1 variety
Tritelia 1 variety
Narcissus 14 varieties
Ranunculus 5 varieties
Bellis (English Daisy) 4 varieties
Chrysanthemum paludosum 1 variety
Viola 21 varieties
Pansies 45 varieties
Violetta 4 varieties
Polyanthus 8 varieties
Poppies 2 varieties



Purple Tulips Art Print
Sybylle Pietrek
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