#alex schechter

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Sonoran Desert (tonda / iStock)

Mesmerizing Places to Watch Flowers Bloom - Sonora Desert, Arizona

Because there’s no better way exalt the end of winter than with millions of tulips, poppies and roses.

Outside of Tucson, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum—home to a cactus garden with native wildflowers and even a butterfly garden—has two flowering peaks, in April and again in early fall (after August's monsoon rains). Still, in this abnormally lush desert, there's always something in bloom. By May, watch prickly pears sprout on the cacti and desert ironwood trees grow soft coatings of lavender flowers.

By Alex Schechter, Travel + Leisure

Smithsonian.com March 3, 2017

Sonoran Desert (tonda / iStock)

Sonoran Desert (Ron_Thomas / iStock)

Sonoran Desert (tonda / iStock)

Sonoran Desert (KenCanning / iStock)

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Cape Floral Kingdom (Mike Cilliers via flickr)

Mesmerizing Places to Watch Flowers Bloom - South Africa

Because there’s no better way exalt the end of winter than with millions of tulips, poppies and roses.

Named by UNESCO as one of the world's 18 biodiversity hot spots, the Cape Floral Kingdom has long enchanted botanists and nature photographers alike. Cape Fox tour guide Jaco Powell recommends traveling north from Cape Town along the N7 highway, which passes by many flower-rich areas. In late summer, flower-spotters should visit Namaqua National Park, where spectacular fields carpeted with wildflowers can be viewed on 4x4 trails and hikes. (Keep an eye out for the lotus-like king protea, South Africa’s national flower.)

By Alex Schechter, Travel + Leisure

Smithsonian.com March 3, 2017

Cape Floral Kingdom (Dan Nelson via flickr)

Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden (RapidEye via flickr)

Cape Floral Kingdom (RapidEye via flickr)

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Spring gardens (sieta_vidas / iStock)

Mesmerizing Places to Watch Flowers Bloom - Giverny, France

Because there’s no better way exalt the end of winter than with millions of tulips, poppies and roses.

Visitors are not allowed to enter Claude Monet’s stone house at Giverny, but his painterly presence lingers outside, in the narrow footpaths bordered with nasturtiums and the luminescent water-lily pond immortalized in his Nympheas paintings. While strolling the gardens, which Monet obsessively designed and tended to himself in the late 1800s, be sure to have your camera handy—the brilliant flower beds, composed in wild strokes of purple, white, gold, and red, are a masterpiece unto themselves.

By Alex Schechter, Travel + Leisure

Smithsonian.com March 3, 2017

Spring gardens (siete_vidas / iStock)

Landscape of Monet’s garden (digitalimagination / iStick)

Spring garden (rusm / iStock)

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Furano, Japan (kanuman / iStock)

Mesmerizing Places to Watch Flowers Bloom - Furano, Japan

Because there’s no better way exalt the end of winter than with millions of tulips, poppies and roses.

By Alex Schechter, Travel + Leisure

Smithsonian.com March 3, 2017

Furano, Japan (trusjom / iStock)