Garden parties

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 6, 2005 by Beth J. Harpaz Associated Press

NEW YORK -- In a culture where vacations are increasingly prized for their "gee whiz" factor -- swimming with sharks, zero-gravity rides and the like -- do people still take trips just to look at pretty flowers?

If attendance at public gardens is any indication, the answer is yes. "Our anecdotal information from member institutions leads us to believe that attendance is up. Particularly after 9/11 there seemed to be a surge, perhaps people seeking natural beauty and serenity after all the manmade horror of the time," said Sharon Lee, spokeswoman for the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta.

To increase their year-round appeal, many public gardens have added art shows, concerts and family-oriented exhibits. A children's garden that opened at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Mich., led to a 91 percent spike in attendance last July. New exhibits and a concert series helped push visitation at the Denver Botanic Gardens from 388,000 to 550,000 in four years.

But spring flowers also draw crowds, and every region has its treasures. Cherry blossom festivals are held in Washington,

D.C., and at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York. Philadelphia hosts one of the nation's best-known flower shows each March. And wildflowers color the landscape from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Arizona desert, where above-average rainfall has created a bumper crop of spring flowers already in bloom, including pink fairy dusters, white silverbells and blue lupines.

The South, blessed with gentle winters and early springs, is particularly rich in gardens. Southern Living magazine's garden editor Gene Bussell's top picks include Middleton Place in Charleston, S.C., which has one of the nation's oldest formally designed gardens, dating to the 1740s, and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., which was elegantly landscaped by the renowned Beatrix Farrand.

Other noteworthy displays on Bussell's list are Callaway Gardens, in Pine Mountain, Ga., near Atlanta; Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, Ala., near Mobile; the Japanese garden at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden; and the gardens at New Orleans' Longue Vue House.

But wherever you are, as the weather gets warmer, it won't be hard to find something beautiful in bloom -- whether it's a bed of daffodils in a local park, flowering trees raining down fragrant petals on a boulevard, or a delicate wild blossom nodding in the woods. Here are some ideas from around the country about places to see spring flowers. Before you go, check on holiday closures, fees and hours, which may vary as the days get longer.

Garden shows

Chicago Flower & Garden Show, Navy Pier, March 12 to 20; www.chicagoflower.com or 312-222-5086.

Cincinnati Flower Show, 6201 Kellogg Ave. (at Coney Island), April 20 to 24; www.cincyflower-show.com/ or 800-670-6808.

New England Spring Flower Show, Bayside Expo Center, Boston, March 12 to 20; www.masshort.org or 617-933-4900.

Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia Convention Center, March 6 to 13; www.philaflowershow.com or 215-988-8899.

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, Cow Palace, March 16 to 20; www.gardenshow.com/sf/index.html or 415-771-6909.

Wildflowers

Arizona: Wildflowers are already blooming in state parks like Picacho Peak and Lost Dutchman; www.azstateparks.com or 602-542- 4174.

Blue Ridge Mountains: Flame azaleas bloom in mid-June in Asheville, N.C.; mountain laurel in mid-May along Otter Creek, and in early June elsewhere; wildflowers in April. Park information: www.nps.gov/blri/ or 828-298-0398.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tenn.: Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage, April 25 to May 1; www.springwildflowerpilgrimage.org/ or 865-436-1200.

Rocky Mountains, Estes Park, Colo.: Wildflowers bloom at lower elevations in May and June, peaking in July. Park information: www.nps.gov/romo or 970-586-1333.

Texas: Bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush and other wildflowers in the Hill Country bloom the last week of March through early April along Highway 290 from Austin to Fredericksburg and Interstate 35 between Dallas and San Antonio, or on any of the smaller Farm-To- Market roads in the hills north of San Antonio; www.tpwd.state.tx.us/ park/wildflower/ or 800-452-9292.

Festivals, other events

Butterfly exhibit, March 1 to April 30, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, 1000 East Beltline NE, Grand Rapids, Mich., www.meijergardens.org or 616-957-1580.

Cherry blossom festivals: April 30 and May 1 at New York's Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1000 Washington Ave., www.bbg.org or 718- 623-7200; and March 26-April 11 in Washington D.C. at Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin, East Potomac Park, and on the Washington Monument Grounds, www.nps.gov/nacc/cherry/indexB.htm or 202-661-7584.

Daffodil Days, April 16 to 30, Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum, 101 Ferry Road, Bristol, R.I., www.blithewold.org or 401- 253-2707.

Dallas Blooms, March 5 to April 10, Dallas Arboretum, 8525 Garland Road; www.dallasarboretum.org or 214-515-6500.

Festival of Flowers, April 2 to May 1, Biltmore Estate, Asheville, N.C.; www.biltmore.com or 800-624-1575.