On now: around 12 Sept to 11 Oct 2026
Floriade
Canberra's free spring festival: about a million bulbs and annuals in a park by the lake.
What happens
Floriade has been held in Canberra's Commonwealth Park, beside Lake Burley Griffin, since 1988. For about a month from mid September to mid October the park's beds are planted with around a million bulbs and annuals, laid out in patterns that follow a new theme each year. Entry is free. The first weeks belong to tulips and the later ones to the annuals planted between them. After dark for a few nights there is NightFest, with the beds lit.
The flowers
Also part of it, and being written: Pansy (Violas and pansies fill the ground between bulbs.), Bellis perennis (English daisies edge the beds.).
Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Background: "Floriade (Canberra)" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Tulip: John O'Neill, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hyacinth: The wub, CC BY-SA 3.0, source