Seasonal flowers of Japan
Japan’s floral world is packed with stunners. And we aren’t just talking about the cherry blossoms or sakuras, which are undeniably the heartthrobs of the blooms. Japan also teems with a whole variety of seasonal flowers that offer just as much – if not more – beauty.
Purple waterfalls of wisterias, sprawling yellow of canola flowers, and blue blankets of nemophilias – there’s always something blooming in Japan. Here’s a guide to the seasonal flowers of Japan to marvel at, including their peak blooming times and best viewing spots.
Table of Contents
1. Plum blossoms
Blooming period: Early February to late March
Image credit: Masaaki Komori via Unsplash
Plum blossoms, or Ume, are like cherry blossoms’ cooler sisters.
They’re the early divas that come abloom earlier when the country is still cloaked in winter, exuding a strong sweet scent and flourishing in gorgeous hues of white, pink, and deep red. They don’t vanish as quickly as cherry blossoms do either – pretty much the MVP of Japan’s spring flower game.
Better yet, the Ume season is the golden ticket to escaping the sakura crowds, with their early blooming period.
Image credit: B-Izu via website
Best viewing spots: Nestled in the hot spring town of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture, the Atami Plum Garden boasts some of the earliest blooming plum blossoms in the country, with buds sprouting as early as late December. The historic garden is home to a blossom buffet of over 460 plum trees of 60 varieties, which are all laid out across gently rolling paths and footbridges, with the hot steam mists from nearby onsen adding to the ethereal charm of the garden.
The Kairukuen Gardens in Ibaraki is where you’ll find a full-blown plum blossom extravaganza with over 3,000 plum trees in more than 100 varieties in an idyllic garden that dates back to the 1800s. Here’s also where one can join in on the festivities of the Mito Plum Festival, including the plum wine or umeshu-making competition.
2. Canola flowers
Blooming period: Late February to early May
Image credit: Visit Hokkaido via website
No pink petals required, but the canola flowers – called Nanohana in Japanese – sure know how to steal the spotlight with their dazzling, buttercup-yellow appearance. Come spring, these sunshines drench the countryside golden with waist-high stalks and stalks of them filling the meadows, perfect for frolicking and photo-takings.
Image credit: Visit Aomori via website
Best viewing spots: Yokohama Town in Aomori Prefecture – not to be confused with the Yokohama near Tokyo – is known as Japan’s largest producer of rapeseed, so you can bet that this town has a literal sea of sunlit yellow. We’re talking over 100 hectares of fields glowing with the radiant yellow of these flowers when they hit their peak.
Besides staring in awe at the buttery dreamscape that seems to stretch past the horizon, visitors can take part in the annual Nanohana Festival, where locals of the small town come together to celebrate the bloom of the canola flowers.
Image credit: @daisuke_clover via Instagram
Head to Gongendo Park in Saitama Prefecture for a surreal view in the form of a vivid juxtaposition of nature’s hues – yellow from the canola rapeseed flowers, pink from the stretch of Yoshino cherry trees, and blue from the vast skies. This seasonal spectacle attracts a crowd over for picnics, leisurely walks, and photoshoots – a spring destination you wouldn’t want to miss.
3. Cherry blossoms
Blooming period: Late March to early April
Image credit: Thoriq Al via Facebook
The Instagram darlings and the superstar of Japan’s seasonal florals, cherry blossoms or sakuras transform the country into a pink-toned wonderland and captivate not just the nation but flocks of people all over the globe. And as poetic as these blooms are, they’re fleeting – blink and you’ll miss the pink.
So catching the sakuras at their peaks is a gem of an experience indeed.
Best viewing spots: The magic of these spring headliners happens in plenty of places throughout Japan, and Ueno Park in Tokyo is one of the most popular hanami spots – or flower-viewing spots – in the city that’s saturated with pink-dusted petals.
Image adapted from: Japan Cheapo and GaijinPot Travel via website
For a dramatically dreamy postcard shot, the sakura blooms around the Hirosaki Castle in the Aomori Prefecture will stun you with the ethereal image of the floral-studded branches framing a traditional castle and the pink canopies by the riverbank, weeping and painting the moat pink.
4. Nemophila
Blooming period: Mid-April to early May
Image credit: Hitachi Seaside Park via website
Known as ‘Baby blue eyes’, nemophila charms and calms with their quiet and understated appeal, but with a beauty that’s palpable yet classy. Carpeting the ground as if reflecting the skies above, these flowers appear a little after the cherry blossom, offering a blue blanket of comfort to those who are missing the sakuras.
Image credit: @washima12 via Instagram
Best viewing spots: Blue sky, blue sea, blue flowers, blue everywhere – Hitachi Seaside Park in the Ibaraki Prefecture is that nemophila viewing spot to be in actual awe at how surreal nature can be. Over 5 million tiny blue flowers are sprawled across the rolling hills of Miharashi no Oka – you’ll be tempted to lie on them and forget about your to-do lists.
Another nemophila field that’ll take your breath away is the Osaka Maishima Seaside Park, which has approximately a million pastel-blue flowers to get lost in.
5. Wisteria
Blooming period: Late April to early May
Image credit: Ashikaga Flower Park via website
It’s an understatement to say that all that the exquisite wisterias in Japan do is bloom. The cascading lavender florals enchant in the most performative way: dramatically draped from tree branches, gracefully swaying in the breeze, and exuding a sweet aroma – you’ll swoon.
Best viewing spots: The Ashikaga Flower Park in the Tochigi Prefecture is arguably the most famous garden to get the best view of wisteria trees. Here, you’ll find over 350 floral chandeliers of wisteria vines, including a 150-year-old Great Miracle Wisteria tree with a mauve canopy so massive it needs its support.
Image adapted from: @wasabi.sampo via Instagram
The silky curtains of pale violet blooms trailing down from trellises at the Kameido Tenjin Shrine in Tokyo will make you feel like you’re stepping into an actual painting. These wisteria trellises dip low enough to create ripples on the surface of the tranquil ponds and flank the vermillion red arched bridges with a floral charm.
6. Peonies
Blooming Period: Late April to early May
Image credit: Hana Map via website
Spring isn’t just about the dainty and sweet. Sometimes, it rolls in all vibrant, bougie, and unapologetically bold in the form of the show-stopping peonies. Think massive pom-pom blooms with some serious ruffles and volume in shades of crimson, blush, white, and cotton candy – they are sure to make an entrance, just as the wisterias are bowing out.
Image credit: @yuya_photo_0240
Best viewing spots: Zen meets a little drama at the Ueno Toshogu Shrine in Tokyo when the serene temple comes alive with the flashy colours of peonies. Its Edo-period garden is home to an explosion of over 110 peony varieties adorning the shrine in every corner.
The Yuushien Garden in Shimane Prefecture is another peony paradise that puts on a magnificent display of over 30,000 ruffled bulbs of cut peonies floating picturesquely in the ponds.
7. Moss Phlox
Blooming period: Late April to early May
Image credit: Hana Map via website
Imagine if the ground was pink – except that there’s no need to imagine as such a splendid phenomenon is very much real. You can witness Japan’s grounds splashed pink when moss phlox or shibazakura burst forth in varying hues of magenta, baby pink, and white in a mass right under your feet.
Trust us when we say that the sight of nature’s candy-coloured carpet will floor you.
Image credit: Zekkei Japan via website
Best viewing spots: The Fuji Shibazakura Festival is the most popular festival in Japan that celebrates the blooming of these pink stunners, laying lush and thick on the rolling meadows. The actual floral carpet consists of over 800,000 blossoming flowers, and as if the visuals of this weren’t stunning enough already, the backdrop of the grand Mount Fuji makes it all the more magical.
After you’re done snapping those Instagrammable shots away, drop by the local market stalls that offer tons of pink and shibazakura-themed snacks and souvenirs to bring home.
Just a little more than an hour away from Tokyo is the Hitsujiyama Park in Chichibu, with its famous moss phlox-filled field and sloping hills. The flowers here blooms somewhat orderly, with each colour confined to an area, to create a gorgeous patchwork of moss phlox blooms and colours.
8. Hydrangeas
Blooming Period: Early June to mid-July
Image credit: @yuya_photo_0240 via Instagram
When Japan is swamped in grey skies and frequent rainshowers, hydrangeas or ajisai come out to thrive. The Hydrangea season runs during the early summer days, particularly during the wet season, when these blooms will flaunt their blue and purple pops to provide a little colour to the dreary.
Best viewing spots: When June comes around, the temple grounds of Hase-dera Temple in Kamakura explode into a dreamy spectrum of blues, purples, pinks, and whites. Over 2500 hydrangea bushes cover the sloping paths, wrap around stone steps, and and cascade down the hills. When paired with the ancient Buddhist architecture, mists from smoke incense, and the moody weather, the temple looks deeply aesthetic and beautifully otherworldly.
Image credit: @teruru112 via Instagram
Nicknamed the ‘Ajiasai Temple’, Meigutsu-in Temple in Kamakura is enchanting with the sheer volume of bushes studded with sky-tinted orbs within its grounds. What’s also unique about this hydrangea garden is that most of the flowers bloom in a monochromatic shade of ‘Meigutsu Blue’, which has since become the temple’s signature hue.
9. Garden Cosmos
Blooming period: Late June to November
Image credit: Visit Kochi via website
The end of summer need not mean that all the pretty has to be gone with the season, and the army of garden cosmos is here to prove that with their delicate and chic grace. These daisy-like flowers are simple slender blooms with light petals that come in a charming palette of sugar-pink, lilac, snowy white, and occasionally sunset orange or fiery red.
Fields in Japan are painted whimsical by these blooms well into autumn, so there’s no fear of these beauties leaving too soon.
Image credit: @iam186 via Instagram
Best viewing spots: For a full blast of cosmos magic, the massive Showa Kinen Park in Tokyo will have you in awe at its foliage of over 4 million blooms, feathery wildflowers swaying in the winds like something out of a dream.
Hananomiyako Park in Yamanashi will present you a wide landscape of cosmos with a side of Mt. Fuji. The ensemble here blooms in an impressive variety, first in golden and orange hues, before the pink, magenta and white joins in. Visitors can weave through the mesmerising meadows via the walking pathways, and enjoy the surreal backdrop of the iconic peak.
10. Lavender
Blooming Period: Mid-July to early August
Subtly magical and soothing to the soul, the lavender season in Japan feels like therapy with clusters of violet wands erupting across the fields and lavender-scented breeze in the air. The season peaks in mid July, so you can expect a plethora of festivals and events that center around the lavender flower.
Best viewing spots: Hokkaido is undoubtedly the lavender capital of Japan, and Furano’s lavender fields attract large numbers of visitors to the region every summer without fail when the plants are in full bloom. To experience the best, Farm Tomita has lavender blooms in full volume, as well as cafes and shops that sell lavender-flavoured snacks and lavender-themed products.
Image adapted from: Farm Tomita via website
Its second farm, Lavender East, is located just kilometres away and boasts 14 hectares of lavender fields where the violet seems to last forever. To properly immerse yourself amidst the haven of lavender, a 15-minute ride on the Lavender Bus will steer you through the fields like a mini floral escape.
11. Kochia
Blooming Period: Late September to mid-October
Autumn in Japan has its fair share of pretty blossoms as well, and Kochias, or summer cypress, are one of them, fuzzy, red, and fabulous in all their glory. These flowers aren’t your typical dainty-looking flowers that bloom in petals, rather, they burgeon in the form of crimson fuzzy bushes scattered across a landscape – a visual treat indeed.
Best viewing spots: Takino Suzuran Hillside National Park in Hokkaido hosts an explosion of fluffy and pink kochia, which is a highlight during the autumn season. Marvel at the flower garden of over 6,000 pom-pom bushes, and get your cameras ready as they change colour dramatically – one day they’re green and calm, and the next they’re scarlet and bold.
A location that has catapulted kochias to Instagram fame is the famous Hitachi Seaside Park in the Ibaraki Prefecture where the rows and rows of red kochia balls contrast spectacularly with the glistening ocean in the backdrop.
Japan’s seasonal flowers and blooming beauties
Timing your visit to Japan around the blossoming of the fleeting sakuras can be quite a stressful task, but why limit yourself to the pale pinks when there is a whole spectrum of colours and blooms throughout the year that slay in their own right? There’s always something blooming in Japan, no matter the season.
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Cover image adapted from: @visitjapanph, @teruru112 via Instagram