Floraliën is held every four years and showcases the very best in floriculture.

Ghent has a long and flourishing floral and horticultural history. The very first flower and plant exhibition took place in one of the city's inns in 1809. Since then the festival – which is organised, as it has been from the start, by the Royal Society for Agriculture and Botany (KMLP) - has undergone a spectacular metamorphosis, transforming into a dynamic and internationally-acclaimed event that welcomes more than 150,000 flower and plant lovers from all over the world. 

The 2021 edition will take place at the Citadel Park, in the heart of the green belt to the south of Ghent. The buildings in this park will form the setting for a bustling 10-day  flower and plant festival celebrating the magical world of flowers and plants.

Discover sensational floral displays by leading floral artists from all over the world. The line up is still being finalised, but in previous shows, floral aritsts Tomas de Bruyne, Hitomi Gilliam and Natalie Zhizko transformed a courtyard into a tranquil, contemplative resting place featuring a gigantic flower chandelier, while Tom de Houwer created a monumental bamboo curtain. Other designers who have participated in previous shows include Frederiek Van Pamel, Mark Colle, Geert Pattyn, Stef Adriaenssens, Daniel and Nele Ost, Karin-Borghouts, and from the Sogetsu School in Japan, Akane Teshigahara.
 

You will also have the chance to explore beautiful landscaped gardens featuring more than 500,000 flowers and plants. Sustainability and innovation will be very much a part of these gardens, so expect to discover emerging trends and return home filled with ideas of how to transform urban environments into green zones.

Floraliën 2021 promises to be a floral festival for all senses!

Open to the public for only three weeks each spring by Royal Decree of the King of Belgium, the elaborate complex of Royal Greenhouses at Laeken was designed for King Leopold II in 1873 by the architect Alphonse Balet. It was conceived as a steel and glass city composed of monumental pavilions topped with glass cupolas linked by wide, covered arcades. These were strikingly innovative materials for the time and the finished building left an architectural legacy that spread across the world in the shape of Art Nouveau. (That movement’s architectural inventor Victor Hotz was Balet’s mentee.) The Royal Greenhouses are not only a treat for architectural aficionados, they are also home to all manner of rare and valuable plant species including many varieties of palm tree. The annual opening is timed to show the collection at its very best and no visitor should leave without experiencing the vibrant, fragrant wonders of the Azalea Greenhouse and Geranium Gallery.

Floralia Brussels is an annual exhibition of spring flowers set in a 34 acre park surrounding the 17th century Castle of Groot-Bijgaarden, a few kilometres outside the Belgian capital. Featuring over a million bulbs, including 400 different varieties of tulip as well as many hyacinths and daffodils, it is a colourful and sweet-smelling celebration of spring. There are also 1000 square meters of restored greenhouses in the grounds which will be home to a changing showcase of around 150 contemporary floral displays.

Described as ‘a city of all ages’, ‘Medieval Manhattan’ and ‘Europe’s best-kept secret’, Ghent is a fascinating cultural cocktail of a city, home to the Van Eyck Brothers' masterpiece The Ghent Altarpiece, the magnificent 12thC Castle of the Counts, as well as a vibrant shopping centre, excellent craft beer and some of the best vegetarian food in Europe.

Bruges will also capture your heart. A Unesco World Heritage City, it combines a rich history with contemporary joie de vivre. Marvel the world-renowned paintings of  prominent Flemish Masters such as Jan Van Eyck and Hans Memling; learn the history of the city's lace making tradition (at one time, a quarter of all the women in Bruges were lacemakers and even nowadays, it is still possible to see traditional Bruges lacemakers at work in some of the lace shops. Just watch those bobbins fly!); explore the Gothic architecture; stroll down tree-lined avenues and hushed cobbled streets or simply sit and watch the world go by in one of the huge, bustling squares.

You will be staying at the 4* Crowne Plaza Hotel Le Palace, a luxurious 4-star hotel set in a prime location in the centre of Brussels within easy reach of main tourist attractions and historic sites.