Spring might not begin till mid-March, but Dallasites can nonetheless whet their appetites for the impending burst of colorful blooms and wafting notes of floral by visiting the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden.
The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden will be preparing for springtime with its annual floral festival starting February 25 to April 16. Dallas Blooms: Great Contributors has been named by Southern Living as one of “The Best Places to See Stunning Spring Blooms Across the South,” its event page proudly states.
The six-week festival will feature 500,000 blooming flowers of more than 100 different types. Most of these flowers will be tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils. Additionally, there will be hundreds of Japanese cherry trees, Japan’s unofficial national flower, and thousands of azaleas, an icon of the South, on display.
Gary Lee Price is returning to the festival with his new collection of realistic bronze statues that will be displayed alongside the flowers.
The theme being Great Contributors, Price has made statues of some of the greatest historical figures of all time, including Harriet Tubman, Mother Teresa, Amelia Earhart, Mark Twain, and others.
Price will ring in his third appearance at the festival with a special demonstration on opening day. On February 25, once at 10:30 a.m. and again at 1 p.m., visitors who have already paid to visit the arboretum can watch as Price sculpts with clay and discusses his work.
Dallas Blooms’ return holds the promise of events, music, and food at the arboretum, including Cool Thursdays Concerts. There will be additional live music events on select weekends at noon.
Visit the Dallas Arboretum calendar here to see the broad range of events that will be happening in the coming months.
A Tasteful Place, a garden on the grounds of the arboretum, offers its own special events dedicated to preparing and eating sustainably and locally-grown foods.
The garden offers guests samples of its vegetables of the month every day, different cooking demonstrations throughout the week, and a harvest demonstration on Thursdays. A full schedule of the various paid workshops, cooking classes, and demos is available on its website.
The Dallas Arboretum president and CEO, Mary Brinegar, stated that there are events and exhibits for everyone at Dallas Blooms.
This also goes for children, who can visit one of the 17 indoor or outdoor galleries found at the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden. Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; young visitors can also participate in various interactive science games, family activities, and events.
Tickets to the festival can be purchased online for $12 to $20 or by phone at 214-515-6615.