Festival of Flowers

The Botanical Gardens of Chapultepec Park were advertising a "Festival of Flowers and Gardens" running for a limited time last Friday through Sunday.

I visited the Botanical Gardens a few years ago and I really was not impressed.  (I thought the Botanical Gardens of the University of Mexico carved out of the Pedregal, the lava flows on the far south side of the city, were much more interesting.)  However, last Friday, because of the Festival, I paid another visit, and I am glad that I did.  Beyond the special exhibits for the event, the gardens have been thoroughly renovated with new landscaping, and are very attractive.

There is, as might be expected, a sizeable cactus garden.

A few of the cacti were blooming.

There is also an agave garden.

Among the varieties there is the blue agave which is used to make tequila.

The national flower of Mexico is the dahlia, and there is a garden planted with various varieties of the flower including the original wild dahlia from which all the others descended.

There is a "wet garden".

There are a wide variety of succulents.

The colorful "pollinator garden" was filled with flowers that attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

The orchid house contains a large number of different orchids, although not all of them were in bloom at this time.

For the festival, there were archways of flowers, similar to those set up along the Paseo de la Reforma.

There was also a tunnel covered inside and out with roses.

A whimsical feature was the garden created entirely out of recycled plastic.

I'm glad that I visited on Friday.  On Saturday Alejandro and I were in Chapultepec Park, and the line of people waiting to get into the Botanical Gardens stretched down the Paseo de la Reforma around the corner and down one of the park paths.