Macy’s Spring Flower Show: Spring Flower Shows in Minnesota


many are Minnesota-hearty, like red tulips.


Spring is in Bloom at Minnesota Flower Shows: Riding up the elevator, the smell of hundreds of fresh flowers fills the air even before the doors open to Macy’s Spring Flower Show. Down the long hallway to the 8th Floor auditorium, you won’t forget you’re headed to a flower show.
For nearly five decades, Minnesotans have ushered in spring at the Macy’s 8th Floor Auditorium’s Spring Flower Show. The downtown Minneapolis show is an annual favorite, and one of the store’s popular 8th Floor events.
Each year's show has a theme, which has ranged in past years from regional highlights like Africa, to the Tower of Flowers floral architecture display, to the "Spring is in the Air" flight theme. Open daily during store hours, the show is especially popular during the annual "Brunch with the Easter Bunny" event at the 12th Floor Oak Grill.
Throughout the auditorium, paths take visitors through the display, and each section of flowers is marked to help gardeners and aspiring gardeners alike identify their favorite varieties. While the exact varieties of flowers will depend on the year’s theme, each show features varieties of trees (like quaking aspen, birch and dogwood), evergreens and shrubs, flowers (like red amaryllis, blue hydrangea, and several varieties of daffodils and tulips), vines and ivy.
While some of the species highlighted in the annual show are exotic, each year’s show also highlights Minnesota-hearty varieties, making the show a popular spot for gardeners to make their spring wish list. The regular Bouquet of the Day features creations by local floral designers from show-sponsor Bachmann’s.
If your visit to the show makes you yearn for spring, head across town to the Spring flower show at the Como Zoo’s Marjorie McNealy Conservatory.
On a sunny Sunday, the Sunken Garden blooms with more than 7,000 brilliantly colored tulips, daffodils, hydrangea, crocuses and lilies. While the Conservatory has five seasonal flower shows (Summer, Fall, Holiday, Winter, Spring), the Spring show is clearly a favorite, judging by the lines of families that gather in their new spring outfits to wander the Sunken Garden.
Opened in 1915, the Conservatory offers a welcoming respite from the final days of winter. Inside the Sunken Garden, the smell of fresh blooms fills the air. Families pause for photos, while couples wander the garden and children bend to watch the goldfish in the garden’s center pond.
“Look at him!” shouts a young boy bending down to point at a goldfish bobbing its mouth to the surface before swimming away.
Outside the Sunken Garden, visitors can enjoy year-round favorite spots, including the center Palm Dome, with tropical palms, ferns and flowers; the steamy fern dome, centered by its trickling waterfall; and the North Garden, showcasing nature’s bounty, including plants intended for eating, developing pharmaceutical treatments or building materials.
The first smell of flowers in the air means spring, and there’s no better place to mark the change of seasons than at a local flower show.
If You Go:
The 2016 Macy’s Spring Flower Show, “America the Beautiful,” takes place during store hours March 20-April 3 in the Macy’s 8th Floor Auditorium in downtown Minneapolis.
The Sunken Garden show at the Marjorie McNealy Conservatory takes place March 19-April 24, daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This year’s show will shine bright with featured flowers orange and yellow tulips, yellow daffodils, yellow hyacinth and yellow crocus.
Both shows are free, though the Como Zoo encourages a small donation of $2 for adults and $1 for children.
While You’re There:
In downtown Minneapolis, plan to start you afternoon out at brunch downtown before visiting the show. Macy’s Oak Grill is a popular destination. Other nearby brunch favorites include Hell’s Kitchen on 9th Street, and the Nicollet Island Inn north of downtown along Hennepin Avenue.
After visiting the Como Conservatory, stay longer to visit the Zoo or enjoy a springtime walk around Como Park.
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