Spring is Blooming at Epcot
By Mark Goldhaber, columnist/editor, MousePlanet.com
The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival starts earlier than ever this year. The 17th annual springtime event runs for seventy-five days, or nearly eleven weeks, from March 3 - May 16, 2010. The theme of this year’s festival is “Celebrate the Great Outdoors”, and the featured topiary at the park’s main entrance shows Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto setting up camp. Where are Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse? Their topiary likenesses are at the entrance to World Showcase, in a scene based on Grant Wood’s 1930 painting “American Gothic.”
The festival features such returning activities as the Great American Gardeners lecture series, the Flower Power Concert Series and Disney Gardening at Home presentations, as well as many floral displays and dozens of the topiaries that at one time could be seen all over Walt Disney World.
100 topiaries (including over 70 Disney character topiaries) are installed across park grounds for the festival, featuring such favorites as Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. Festival landscaping includes 30 million blooms, 500,000 bedding plants and 700 container gardens of flowers, herbs, plants and vegetables in clay pots, barrels and urns. At least 25 different plants, grasses and mosses of various colors are used to create and define features of the festival topiaries, including pink and red begonias, dusty miller, palm fiber, palm seeds, ficus and lichen.
There’s a new Garden Town Breakfast at this year’s Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, featuring foods grown at the Land Pavilion plus food and gardening tips from the experts. To ensure that you don’t miss your chance at this $60 per person event, make your reservation now by calling 407-WDW-FEST (407-939-3378).
Here’s a rundown on what’s going on at the Festival in 2010:
Garden Town events
Three series of events are held each Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Garden Town festival center in the Wonders of Life pavilion. Disney Gardening at Home gives you an opportunity to learn from Disney’s horticultural masters and get a hands-on lesson that you can take home with you at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The Great American Gardeners series features tips and entertaining stories from some of the most respected gardeners and nature experts in the country at noon and 3 p.m. Planting Pointers lets you get great gardening ideas from the experts from IFAS at the University of Florida at 1 and 4 p.m.
Flower Power Concert Series
This series usually features artists popular back in the “Flower Power” days of the 1960s and 1970s, but is expanding its scope to include music from the 1980s. The exception to this would be the Nelsons, but they make up for that by playing the hits of their father, Ricky Nelson, who was of that period. New to the lineup this year are Fran Cosmo (lead singer of Boston) and Atlanta Rhythm Section. Concerts take place three times nightly at the America Gardens Theatre, at 5:15, 6:30 and 7:45 p.m. For the second year in a row, performances have been cut back to weekends-only, leaving the theater dark Monday-Thursday nights.
Special displays in World Showcase’s various country pavilions include Guerlain hosts offering guided tours of the Fragrance Garden at the France pavilion every day at 2, 4 and 6 p.m., focusing on plants and perfume. Complimentary guided tours of the English Tea Garden at the United Kingdom pavilion explore the art and history of blending tea plants such as the camomile flower, peppermint plant, lemon tree and ginger root, and are offered at 4:00 and 6:30 daily, with additional 2:00 tours on Friday through Sunday. The Japan pavilion features a display on the art of bonsai.
Child-focused events and features include Pixie Hollow Fairy Garden, Fawn’s Butterfly House at Pixie Hollow, Let’s Get Moving, Princess Tiana’s Wedding Bayou, Bee Scavenger Hunt and special events created as parts of specific themed weekends during the festival.
Best of all, all festival events are included with regular Epcot admission.
Note that, as always, entertainment is subject to change without notice.
More information
For more information, you can see MousePlanet’s park guide page (http://www.mouseplanet.com/misc.php?pg=flower_garden_2010) or the official Flower & Garden Festival page on Walt Disney World’s web site (http://www.disneyworld.com/flower).
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