As springtime hits Budapest, the city’s green oases turn into fragrant seas of flowers. FŐKERT, the city’s park-maintenance company that is celebrating its 150th birthday this year, launches a large-scale flower planting session in the autumn and in spring every year around town. Even though the city’s “head gardener” has more challenging tasks, we are happy to highlight the colorful aromatic herbacious flowers that dress Budapest up in all kinds of warm colors.
Every year towards the end of September, the city’s gardeners plant nearly 100,000 pansies around town. We feature this colorful – monochrome or multicolored – flower first, because it is a biennial plant, which means that it blossoms twice in a year, during the spring and autumn. These are the flowers that first turn the city’s public squares into colorful fields.
In mid-May, several eager gardeners head out to enhance the city’s parklands as they swap these pansies with nearly 250,000 annual flowers. Even though their life cycle lasts only a year, these flowers blossom vividly through the autumn, painting bright colors on the cityscape.
Before we get to know the most significant annual flowers better, let’s explore the flora that floods the city during spring. Generally bulbs and flowers with roots start blossoming first; snow-flowers that can easily be mixed up with the similarly beautiful spring snowflakes, say goodbye to the winter. As Easter approaches, crocuses, grape hyacinths, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips are in bloom, and then lilies of the valley form fragrant fields. A few shrubs and trees bloom as well, such as forsythia, magnolia, and flowering quince.
April is the time when charming Japanese cherry trees adorn Budapest in pink, and when the Sakura Celebration takes place, which is an especially spectacular event at the Eötvös Loránd University’s Botanical Garden.
Afterwards, buckeyes show off their characteristic white blossoms. Budapest boasts 19,000 of these trees, and the most spectacular ones are found on Margaret Island, at City Park, and in Hűvösvölgy.
Finally, let’s see a few annual flowers that are found among the 250,000 flowers planted in mid-May. We can spot marigolds, petunias, touch-me-nots, begonias, zinnias, and verbenas in the huge seas of flowers. To admire these colorful flowers it is best to head to Margaret Island, Clark Ádám Square, City Park, Gellért Hill, Eötvös Square, Bem József Square, and Szent István Park.
