LILACS LOMBARD, ILL. lombardlilactime.com About 20 miles west of Chicago is Lombard, where each spring more than 700 purple, white, pink and magenta lilacs bloom in the town’s 8.5-acre Lilacia Park. This year’s Lilac Time — the city’s annual lilac festival that’s been held for more than 80 years — is scheduled for April 30 to May 15. If you can’t make that scene, there’s prime lilac viewing at the glorious lilac arboretum in Des Moines’ Ewing Park and the annual Mackinac Island Lilac Festival held in Michigan in June.
LILACS
Lombard, Ill.
LUANNE FHUERE; LESLIE AND ROBERT SULLA
BLUEBONNETS
BLUEBONNETS
Ennis, Texas
BURNET, TEXAS bluebonnetfestival.org
ENNIS, TEXAS bluebonnettrail.org
Burnet, about an hour from Austin, was designated the Bluebonnet Capital of Texas by the state legislature in 1981. From about mid-March through June, bluebonnets, sunflowers and black-eyed Susans bloom along the Texas Hill Country Wildflower Trail (lakes andhills.com/bluebonnettrail. htm). The Bluebonnet Festival takes place on the second weekend in April every year.
From April 1-30, the Bluebonnet Trails in Ennis, about 40 minutes south of Dallas, will attract flower lovers ready to drive 40 miles of mapped sightings of Texas’ state flower. Peak usually comes in the third week of April. Head north for the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden’s Dallas Blooms festival (dallasarboretum.org). From Feb. 25 to April 9, the event features more than 500,000 flowers, including tulips, daffodils, azaleas and hyacinths. ●
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