Atlanta Blooms!

Celebrate the return of springtime in Georgia with the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s annual flowering bulb festival, Atlanta Blooms!

Who can resist the thousands of brightly colored tulips and daffodils triumphantly reaching for the sky now through April as the weather slowly shifts from sadly dreary and cold to cheerfully warm and sunny?  

Complementing the meadows of spring bulbs are flowering trees like tulip magnolias, cherries and dogwoods along with blooming shrubs, including quince, forsythia and native azaleas.

Plans for Atlanta Blooms! begin a year in advance, evaluating flower color combinations, looking at new varieties’ performance and weighing new offerings from vendors. 

Here are some new, exciting “faces” to look for this March and April:

• Tulip ‘Primavista’ in the Anne Cox Chambers Flower Walk. Not all reds are created equal, so time will tell how this newbie measures up against some longtime favorites like ‘Sky High Scarlet’.
• An unusual shaped tulip, ‘Red Dress’ can be found in the Alston Overlook garden. Part of the ‘crown’ tulip series, its overall shape and curvaceous petals promise a striking presence.
• Tulip ‘Chongming’ could offer a coveted mango color when it emerges beside the Great Lawn. Will this yellow and orange with pink blush tulip turn out to be too good to be true or steal the show?  
• Daffodil ‘Sugar Dipped’ will float in the pond pots in front of the Fuqua Conservatory, brightening up the dark, winter water with bright yellow cups and creamy white, recurved petals.  
• Here’s hoping that Fritillaria ‘Early Dream’ will be dreamy in the Anne Cox Chambers Garden. Fritillaria usually are picky in the Southeast climate, but staff are hopeful about this stocky, soft orange cultivar.

For updates on the bloom progress throughout springtime, follow the Garden on its social media channels.