The year ahead
What's on: Europe
Flower shows, festivals and awareness days for the next twelve months. Dates shown in green were confirmed against the organiser's own website; everything else shows the month it usually falls in.
December
World Soil Day
A day for the living material everything in the garden depends on. Healthy soil is the whole game.
The December solstice
The shortest day in the northern hemisphere and the longest in the southern. The turning point of the year for daylight.
February
World Wetlands Day
A day for the marshes, bogs and ponds that hold water and life. Even a small garden pond does a version of the same job.
March
World Wildlife Day
A day about wild plants and animals and the habitats they need. Gardens are a surprisingly large share of that habitat.
Giardina
Switzerland's leading garden show, with designed show gardens, plants and outdoor living ideas at Messe Zürich.
Nordic Gardens fair
Scandinavia's big garden fair opens the season with show gardens, nurseries, talks and seeds at Stockholmsmässan.
Mainau Island flower season
The flower island on Lake Constance runs from spring tulips through summer roses to autumn dahlias, with exhibitions and plant markets along the way.
Keukenhof
Seven million spring bulbs planted every autumn and opened to the public for roughly eight weeks in spring.
The March equinox
Day and night are close to equal length everywhere. Spring begins in the north, autumn in the south.
International Day of Forests
A day for trees and what they do for us. A single garden tree still provides shade, shelter and food for wildlife.
World Water Day
A day about fresh water and using it carefully. Worth a thought for anyone with a hose or a water butt.
April
International Garden Festival, Chaumont-sur-Loire
Experimental show gardens built to a new theme each year and left in place for most of the growing season.
Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard Plant Fair
About 200 nurseries and growers fill the grounds and walled kitchen garden of a château south of Paris. An autumn edition follows in September.
Floralia Brussels
A month-long spring show of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths in the park of Groot-Bijgaarden Castle, just outside Brussels.
Royal Greenhouses of Laeken open days
For about three weeks each spring the King's glasshouses at Laeken open to the public, full of camellias, azaleas and other plants in flower.
Bulb Region Flower Parade
Floats covered in spring bulb flowers travel 42 km through the bulb fields from Noordwijk to Haarlem.
International Garden Exhibition 2027, Ruhr
Germany's national garden show for 2027, spread across the Ruhr with main gardens in Duisburg, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen and Lünen. The show moves city every few years.
Madeira Flower Festival
Funchal fills with flower carpets and displays, with two flower parades through the city centre, as the island's subtropical gardens reach their peak.
Flora Olomouc (spring)
The Czech Republic's largest flower and garden show fills its halls with floristry and plant displays, with a garden market of hundreds of stalls outside.
Festival of Flowers and Art at Książ Castle
Florists fill around 40 rooms of Książ Castle with arrangements over the long weekend around 1 May, with a carpet of flowers leading up to the castle.
Kifisia Flower Show
Growers fill Kifisia Grove with flowers, rare plants and garden stalls for about three weeks each spring. It goes back to 1896.
Earth Day
A worldwide day of environmental action, marked since 1970. Composting, planting or simply leaving a corner wild all count.
May
International Day of Plant Health
A day about keeping plants free of pests and disease. Most plant problems travel on plants we move about ourselves.
Chantilly Plant Days
A plant fair in the park of the Château de Chantilly, where specialist nurseries from across Europe sell rare and unusual plants. An autumn edition follows in October.
Orticola
A long-running show and market of unusual, rare and heritage plants in Milan's public gardens, where specialist nurseries sell direct.
Tre Giorni per il Giardino (spring)
More than a hundred specialist nurseries bring rare and unusual plants to the park of Masino Castle, with talks and garden walks. An autumn edition follows in October.
Córdoba Patios Festival
Residents open their private courtyards, packed with potted geraniums, jasmine and climbers, for about two weeks each May. A UNESCO-listed tradition.
Floraart
Zagreb's international garden show spreads show gardens, nurseries and flower displays around Bundek lake and park. Entry is free.
World Bee Day
A day for bees and the other pollinators most of our food depends on. A patch of flowering plants is a real contribution.
International Day for Biological Diversity
A day about the variety of life and why it matters. A mixed garden supports far more of it than a tidy one.
June
World Environment Day
The United Nations' biggest day for environmental action, marked since 1973.
Bord Bia Bloom
Ireland's largest gardening festival, with show gardens, a nursery village and talks over the June bank holiday weekend in the Phoenix Park.
Rendez-vous aux jardins
Over one weekend in early June, public and private gardens across France and other European countries open with tours and activities.
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
A day about land drying out and losing its fertility. The principles that hold soil together in a garden hold it together anywhere.
The June solstice
The longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest in the southern. From here the daylight turns the other way.
July
World Mangrove Day
A day for the coastal forests that hold shorelines together and shelter an enormous amount of marine life.
August
Debrecen Flower Carnival
Floats covered in hundreds of thousands of flowers parade through the city on 20 August, Hungary's national holiday, with a week of events around it.
September
Zundert Flower Parade
Huge floats covered in dahlias, built by the village's own districts, parade through Zundert each September.
International Garden Fair Tulln
Austria's big garden fair on the Danube, with around 450 exhibitors and a whole hall given to a flower show.
Murabilia
A plant fair on Lucca's old city walls and in its botanic garden, with more than 200 exhibitors, mostly nurseries, and a new garden theme each year.
World Ozone Day
Marks the treaty that repaired the ozone layer — one of the clearest cases of an environmental problem actually being fixed.
The September equinox
Day and night are close to equal length again. Autumn begins in the north, spring in the south.
October
Tre Giorni per il Giardino (autumn)
The autumn edition of the Masino Castle plant fair, a good time to buy trees, shrubs, bulbs and perennials for planting.
World Food Day
A day about how the world is fed. A vegetable bed is a small answer to a very large question.