Atlanta Blooms

Lets face it, winter in Atlanta this year is a joke. In fact, the only thing that even resembles winter in Atlanta this year is all the gray, dead greenery. Every where you look its bare trees and empty gardens. Every where except, of course, the Atlanta Botanical gardens.

Renowned plant collections, beautiful displays and spectacular exhibitions make the Atlanta Botanical Garden the loveliest place in the city to visit on any given day but especially in the bleak gray that is winter. An urban oasis in Midtown, the Garden includes 30 acres of outdoor gardens, an award-winning Children’s Garden, the serene Storza Woods highlighted by a unique Canopy Walk, and the innovative Edible Garden and Outdoor Kitchen.

Indoors, the Fuqua Conservatory is an organic biosphere and home to important collections of tropical and desert plants, and the Fuqua Orchid Center houses the foremost collection of species orchids in the United States. Efforts by staff of the Center for Conservation and Education include the preservation of wetlands and carnivorous plant bogs across the Southeast as well as the protection of endangered species of amphibians from around the world.

There are also an abundant amount of activities and programs in the Garden throughout the year. Popular annual happenings such as Cocktails in the Garden, Garden Chef Demos, Wells Fargo Advisors Concerts in the Garden, educational classes, food festivals and more offer something for everyone.

Every spring, from March to April, the Garden explodes into a colorful extravaganza of tens of thousands of tulips and other bulbs. Atlanta Blooms ignites a kaleidoscopic spectacle with tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, crocus, to name a few – for a Dutch spectacle unlike any other in the Southeast. The bulbs enhance existing displays to create electrified meadows of color. Call it Tulipmania, Southern style!

From hot pinks to fiery oranges and regal purples, the second annual springtime celebration Atlanta Blooms: 300,000 Watts of Flower Power is more electrifying than ever. This spring the bulbs join swaths of existing perennial bulbs, pansies, phlox, daphne, and spring wildflowers, blanketing the Garden in a technicolor rainbow – all aimed at welcoming spring with a bang of glory for years to come.

Shocking pink ‘The Cure’ tulips greet visitors at Piedmont Avenue. The Camellia Garden explodes with a daffodil mix of blue and purple splashes. Oranges and purples play a big role at both the Hardin Visitor Center and Levy Parterre. Lavender, yellow, and pink guide the way to the Great Lawn flanked with deep red ‘Jan Rues’ and golden-yellow ‘Mrs. John Scheepers’ on one side and ‘Red Impression’ mingling with yellow and red.

“You will definitely not want to come here without your sunglasses,” says Mildred Pinnell

Fockele, the Garden’s horticulture director. “Visitors will be shocked by all the color and beauty!”

In the Edible Garden, deep pink ‘Albert Heijn’ and ‘Purple Prince’ complement ‘Mammoth Red Rock’ cabbages among the row crops. The showstopper is a rainbow field of tulips in the North Courtyard. The kaleidoscope of bulb color promises to be a warm-up to spring, when the Garden awakens with trees, shrubs, and perennials ready to unfurl their beauty once again. What better way to usher them in than with hundreds of thousands of bulbs?

Atlanta Blooms promises to be a warm-up to spring, when the Garden awakens with trees, shrubs, and perennials ready to unfurl their beauty once again.