The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will be in full bloom March 4-June 1, 2020! This 27th annual event has become one of my favorites of Epcot’s festivals and I can’t wait to spend some time exploring the new topiaries and outdoor kitchens next year.
This year’s 90-day event will bring back all of the annual favorites we’ve come to know and love like the gorgeous blooms, outdoor kitchens, and the Garden Rocks Concert Series along with brand new gardens for the 2020 season. More new topiaries will likely be announced as we get closer to the festival but so far we know that a brand new Remy topiary will be the centerpiece of the France pavilion’s new Ratatouille Garden that will be filled with all the veggies featured in a ratatouille recipe.
So far we also know that some fan-favorite topiaries like Snow White, Elsa and Anna, Belle and Beast, Mickey and Minnie, and one of my personal favorites from last year, Kermit and Miss Piggy, will also be returning for Epcot’s longest festival in the spring. Along with returning topiaries, the floating gardens, The Goodness Garden Butterfly House (presented by GoGoSqueeZ) and the oh-so-Instagram-worthy flower quilt will all be back in Future World.
New for 2020, Disney is introducing “flower towers” that are set to offer “colorful backdrops for spring selfies”. I have a feeling these new towers are going to create color backdrops for all of the season’s food photography too… Violet Lemonade anyone?
When I first started going to the Walt Disney World Resort during Epcot’s festivals, Food & Wine Festival quickly became my favorite. Food & Wine is still my favorite, but not simply because of the outdoor kitchens, which have since expanded to all of Epcot’s festivals. (Food & Wine takes the cake for having so many offerings in addition to the outdoor kitchens, like the cooking demonstrations beverage seminars, etc… I could easily spend an entire Disney vacation at just Food & Wine Festival).
That being said, Flower & Garden really has just as much going on, you just need to keep an eye out for the details. Disney will be releasing more information about this year’s festival on FreshEpcot.com as we get closer to March, but for now I can tell you that some of my favorite parts of Flower & Garden Festival actually come in the much smaller gardens and exhibits.
The merchandise from outside vendors that sets up during the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is always full of neat items to add to your at home garden scene, and the smaller gardens around the park are actually extremely informative. Two of my favorite gardens aren’t topiaries at all- I always stop at the Shakespeare Garden in the UK pavilion, which is filled with flowers and plants mentioned in different works by Shakespeare with their related quotes, and the tea garden, which displays all of the tea plants in decorative oversized tea cups with information about each blend.
There is also usually a pepper garden near Mexico and various herb gardens near the outdoor kitchens that are actually really interesting if you’re not up on all of this gardening knowledge (like me!). Last year Disney debuted a new gift card design too that came with seeds so you could plant your own wildflowers at home- while this hasn’t been confirmed for 2020 yet it seemed to be a hit last year so I think we’ll see that again.
