From wildflowers to spring blossoms, summer lavender, and fall roses, if there’s a flower coming into bloom, this state has a festival to celebrate it!
With its rolling hills awash in beautiful wildflowers in spring, summer, and even fall, the Lone Star State is home to festivals that focus on breathtaking wildflowers during peak bloom.
Dallas Blooms Spring Festival
Every year, from late-February to mid-April, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens puts on its Dallas Blooms Spring Festival, taking advantage of the more than half-million blooms that color the grounds and delight visitors. The largest annual floral festival in the Southwest, Dallas Blooms also offers live music and entertainment, cooking classes and tastings, children’s play, wine and beer pairings for adults, book signings, and speakers. From yellow Mexican Mint Marigolds to fuchsia-pink Dianthus, delicate purple pansies to fields of colorful tulips, blooming trees, and even topiaries, the Dallas Blooms Spring Festival is a must-see.
Tyler Azalea and Spring Flower Trail
Tyler may be “America’s Rose Capital,” but every spring, this charming city also plays host to the Tyler Azalea and Spring Flower Trail. From late March to early April, guests are invited to stroll the brick streets past flower-covered homes in the Azalea National Historic District, which also get its fair share of other blooms, including wisteria, budding dogwood, redbud, and Japanese maple, as well as spring tulips, daffodils, and more. Two trails weave through the historic district, which permit visitors to stop and smell the flowers, as well as meet Rose City Ambassadors. Nearby Tyler State Park also hosts its annual Dogwood Days Driving and Walking Tour from late March to early April, a self-guided vehicle tour of beautiful dogwood blooms and other spring flowers.
Ennis Bluebonnet Trails
Texans anxiously await spring bluebonnet season each year, when the state’s fields, highways, parks, and lawns are awash with the rich blue hue of the official Texas State Flower. During the month of April, the town, designated as the “Official Bluebonnet City of Texas,” celebrates the big array of blooms along its Bluebonnet Trails, as well as with a weekend festival, where visitors can enjoy arts and crafts vendors, good food and drink, live music, and kid-friendly fun. Tens of thousands of visitors flock here to see this natural phenomenon!
Texas Dogwood Trails Celebration
For more than 80 years in Spring, the East Texas town of Palestine welcomes visitors to share in its delight with the blooms of its beautiful dogwood trees. Indeed, Davey Dogwood Park is awash with the delicate white blooms that resemble snow when the petals fall. Visitors can download scenic driving trail maps, which detail two driving trails, as well as a hike and bike trail, to view the dogwood bloom magic. Other activities abound during the festival, including rides on the Piney Woods Excursion Train at the Texas State Railroad located here. There’s also a parade, a flower and farm market, a rodeo, a play at the historic Texas Theatre, stained glass tours of historic churches, and more.
Blanco Lavender Festival
June is lavender-growing month in Blanco. The Texas Hill Country town provides perfect growing conditions for the purple blooms. The Blanco Lavender Festival is a heavenly scented celebration of the fruits of the local lavender harvest. Visit Hill Country Lavender, Texas’s first commercial lavender farm, enjoy live music at Bindseil Park and sample food, wine, and local beer. Shop lavender products and works for sale by select artists and craftspeople at the Lavender Market, held on the grounds of the historic Old Blanco County Courthouse.
Texas Rose Festival
Each October, Tyler, the “Rose City,” pulls out the stops for its Texas Rose Festival. For more than 90 years, the town of Tyler has come together to celebrate all things roses. Activities include a parade, a ribbon cutting and rose presentation, a tea, the Queen’s coronation, and much more — all set amid brilliant roses that wash the community in color each fall. Visitors can learn about the Rose Festival and Tyler’s rose-growing industry at the Tyler Rose Museum, which is open year-round. View the variety of roses found at the 14-acre Tyler Municipal Rose Garden, which features thousands of rose bushes and other flowering plants. Roses bloom twice year, in mid-late May and October.
Embrace the Texas spirit with a flower festival, and you’ll understand why Texans love flowers so much!
