| Epcot Flower and Garden
Festival
(see Festival Fun Facts below)
Tinker Bell and friends
from the new movie Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Lost
Treasure
appear in elaborate topiary form in the new Pixie Hollow Fairy
Garden at the annual
Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival at Walt
Disney World in Lake Buena Vista.
More than 70 topiaries are guest-pleasers across Epcot during
the 75-day festival.
Other festival fun includes gardening seminars, Flower Power
concerts,
a butterfly conservatory and lots of children’s activities.
17th Epcot Flower &
Garden Festival Shifts Dates Earlier Than Ever--March 3
through May 16, 2010
Epcot blooms with more
than 30 million colorful blossoms, fanciful Disney-themed
topiaries,
interactive activities for kids, musical concerts and
gardening workshops during the annual
Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival at the Walt
Disney World Resort.
New:
Characters Camp Out for Topiary Photo Op; Bambi Meets
Butterflies
The 17th annual Epcot International Flower
& Garden Festival kicks off March 3 – earlier than ever
– and continues for 75 days through May 16, 2010, with bold
strokes of seasonal color and brand-new topiary whimsy. Last
year’s festival began March 18; now Walt Disney World guests
get a head start on the gardening season as they explore
exhibits and activities geared toward discovery and outdoor
fun.
Even before spring has sprung, Donald Duck and
his topiary pals set up camp in full floral color to celebrate
the Great Outdoors at the Epcot front entrance. The
elaborate topiary with a North American theme, live waterfall
and pond features Goofy in a fly-fishing misadventure, Daisy
Duck roasting marshmallows over a campfire and Pluto in his
“pup tent.” It’s a must-stop photo op for guests as
soon as they pass through the park turnstiles.
"The advantage of starting earlier
is that we’ll be able to feature more brilliant color than
ever, with richly hued petunias, violas, snapdragons and other
hardy flowers,” says festival horticulture manager Eric
Darden. “By starting earlier and going through mid-May,
it allows more guests than ever to experience the festival and
to plan ahead for their spring and summer gardening."
Friends from the new
movie Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure appear in
elaborate topiary form in the new Pixie Hollow Fairy Garden at
the annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival at
Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. More than 70
topiaries are guest-pleasers across Epcot during the 75-day
festival. Other festival fun includes gardening seminars,
Flower Power concerts, a butterfly conservatory and lots of
children’s activities.
New This Year!
Up to 700 butterflies flutter into an expanded
and relocated, futuristic-themed Bambi’s Butterfly
House – double the size of previous years’
Minnie’s Magnificent Butterfly Garden. The new
butterfly abode in Future World West, at 3,500 square feet,
allows hundreds of the winged beauties to flit among the lush
foliage of a larger screened enclosure, where guests can
wander and watch as multiple butterfly species light on
flowers filled with nectar and as caterpillars emerge from
their chrysalis in a special discovery exhibit. Bambi
joins butterfly floral topiaries to welcome guests to the
enclosure.
TOPIARY MICKEY - Disney
gardener Jesse Pacheco demonstrates the magic of creating a
Mickey Mouse topiary
for the annual Epcot International Flower & Garden
Festival at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Hundreds of tiny plant plugs are placed artfully and manicured
carefully to create original topiary displays.
Special gardens, events and children’s play
areas throughout the park offer more reasons to visit the 17th
annual Festival.
-
New Victory Garden – Disney’s
“fab five” topiary pals – Mickey, Minnie, Donald,
Pluto and Goofy – gather at American Adventure to tend
tomatoes, beans, peppers, herbs and other edibles in their
first Victory Garden as a salute to the history of World
War II gardens, the new White House vegetable garden and
the many community gardens being planted across the
country.
-
Newly Expanded Pixie Hollow Fairy
Garden – Colorful topiaries of Tinker Bell and
friends from Walt Disney Pictures’ latest DVD release
“Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” will sprinkle
pixie dust over this playful, expanded garden for kids. New
characters on display with returning fairy favorites are
fast-flying, sharp-tongued Vidia and charming Terence,
dispenser of pixie dust. Tinker Bell’s Nook
has hands-on activities. In a synergistic turn, the
“Lost Treasure” DVD includes a bonus feature on “The
Making of the Fairy Garden,” featuring Disney cast
members who designed and built Pixie Hollow, along with
the movie’s producer and director, who helped plan the
garden.
-
Tuscan Garden--features the
flourishing of magnificent olive trees.
-
First-Ever American Gothic Mickey Mouse
and Minnie Mouse – Topiary experts pull out all the
stops to create an American Gothic Mickey and Minnie
topiary scene based on the 1930 Grant Wood painting.
At World Showcase Plaza.
-
Pirates Adventure Zone – Peter
Pan, Captain Hook and Croc topiaries will lure young
swashbucklers to this interactive space designed for
exploration and adventure. Next to the Germany
pavilion.
Throughout the festival, more than 70
topiaries plus sweeping floral beds and exhibits will decorate
the park landscape and showcase the extraordinary
craftsmanship of Disney gardeners. A Fragrance Garden at
the France pavilion will tell the “love story” of plants
and perfume, and the art of bonsai will “wow” guests at
the Japan showcase.
BARE BONES -- Disney
horticulturist Calvin Key puts the finishing touches
on the elaborate irrigation system within the Tramp (of
"Lady and the Tramp" fame) topiary.
Such systems ensure that the topiary plants are watered
sufficiently
and require minimal maintenance throughout the annual Epcot
International Flower & Garden Festival.
Festival highlights also include:
-
Flower Power concerts – Popular
bands will rock the open-air America Gardens Theatre every
Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 5:15, 6:30 and 7:45 p.m. Jose
Feliciano is scheduled to kick off the concert series
March 5-7. On subsequent weekends, the lineup is
slated to feature pop favorites like Davy Jones, Chubby
Checker & The Wildcats, Tony Orlando, former Boston
lead singer Fran Cosmo, and other top acts.
-
Disney Gardening at Home presentations –
Disney horticulturists will share gardening tips and lead
guests in a hands-on, take-home activity.
-
The Great American Gardeners series –
Gardening celebrities and authors from across the country
will reveal their gardening secrets. Opening weekend,
Robert Bowden, author and director of lush Harry P. Leu
Gardens in Orlando, kicks off the series.
-
The Garden Town Festival Center –
Guests can shop for festival merchandise, attend speaker
presentations and demonstrations and ask gardening
questions of the experts.
-
Special Festival Celebrations –
An Art in the Garden celebration of plain air artists is
scheduled March 26-28; a Florida Farmer’s Market
celebration is April 23-25, and the popular I Dig Bugs
event is set for April 30 through May 2.
-
The Green Living Garden--Between
the France and Morocco pavilions, you'll find this area
filled with ideas about gardening to better serve the
environment. And there will be plenty of seminars,
featuring new hands-on activities.
-
During the Festival, you can even email
Disney horticulturalists with questions about your own
garden at disney.gardener@disney.com.
More information about the 17th annual Epcot
International Flower & Garden Festival is available by
calling 407/W-DISNEY (934-7639) or by visiting disneyworld.com/flower. The
festival, including all gardening programs and exhibits, is
included in regular Epcot admission.
Flower Power Concert
Series
America Gardens Theater
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
5:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.
Jose
Feliciano...............................................................................March
5-7
Paul Revere and the
Raiders......................................................March
12-14
David
Cassidy...........................................................................March
19-21
Starship featuring Mickey
Thomas..............................................March
26-28
Tony
Orlando...................................................................................April
2-4
Herman's Hermits starring Pteter Noone..........................................April
9-11
Ricky Nelson Remembered Featuring the
Nelsons.........................April 16-18
Atlanta Rhythm
Section.................................................................April
23-25
Fran Cosmo (former singer of
Boston).....................................April 30-May 2
Davy
Jones........................................................................................May
7-9
Chubby Checker & The
Wildcats...................................................May
14-16
Festival Fun Facts!
Thirty million blooms, half a million plants,
60 tons of topiary and 600 butterflies add up to a wonderful
world of theme park color at the 17th annual Epcot
International Flower & Garden Festival, March 3-May 16 at
Walt Disney World Resort. Among this year’s fun
festival facts:
Thirty million blooms blanket the park
throughout the festival, which runs 75 colorful days.
More than 100 topiaries displayed
throughout the park add up to 60 tons of plant
materials.
More than 70 Disney character topiaries
represent the largest collection of Disney character topiary
in the world and include classic film stars like Mickey Mouse,
Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto,
Cinderella and Tinker Bell.
At 14 feet tall, Goofy is the tallest
character topiary ever created.
600 native butterflies, more than ever
before, represent up to 10 species at Fawn’s
Butterfly House, a gazebo-type screened enclosure filled with
lush plants where guests can view the colorful butterflies. Among
the garden’s two dozen nectar plants are Cape Royal plumbago,
passion flower, coral honeysuckle, blazing star, butterfly
bush, scarlet milkweed and canna lily.
More than 500,000 plants, trees and shrubs
are planted for the festival; 250,000 of those are annual
blossoms installed for the festival.
Festival plants include 60 different
species of trees, 47 types of palms, and 48
varieties of bedding plants.
At least 25 different plants, grasses
and mosses of various colors, including pink and red begonias,
dusty miller, palm fiber, palm seeds, ficus and lichen, are
used to create and define features of the festival
topiaries. More color has been added to the topiaries
than in any previous topiary presentation.
More than 15 floral, herbal and spice
ingredients of 10 popular perfumes are revealed in
the Fragrance Garden presented by Guerlain at the France
pavilion. Guests can sniff the enduring fragrance
Shalimar to discover botanical notes that include lemon,
Arabian jasmine and vanilla. Some components of nine
other Guerlain fragrances include mimosa, magnolia, rose,
nutmeg and vetivergrass.
198 hands-on gardening demonstrations and
seminars will be presented.
44 “flower towers” of impatiens
line Innoventions Plaza.
120 floating mini-gardens, each three
feet in diameter, of multi-hued impatiens provide splashes of
color on two ponds that border the walkway between Future
World and World Showcase.
700 container gardens of flowers,
herbs, plants and vegetables in clay pots, barrels and urns
enhance the landscape throughout Epcot.
600 Walt Disney World horticulturists
are needed to install the festival landscape, topiaries and
many exhibits; 100 Epcot horticulturists maintain topiaries
and other festival displays.
It takes more than one full year
and about 24,000 cast member hours to prepare for the
annual festival.
The festival’s weekend Flower Power
concert series includes 11 artists and groups with 126 Top
40 hits, including 16 No. 1 songs. This year’s
musical hit-makers from the 1960s and '70s include Jose
Feliciano, Paul Revere & The Raiders, David Cassidy,
Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, Tony Orlando, Herman’s
Hermits Starring Peter Noone, Ricky Nelson Remembered
Featuring the Nelsons, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Fran Cosmo,
Davy Jones, and Chubby Checker & The Wildcats.
Butterfly
fun fascinates youngsters at the Epcot International Flower
& Garden Festival at the Walt Disney
World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. During the festival,
guests can explore Minnie’s Magnificent Butterfly
Garden, a butterfly conservatory where hundreds of
fluttering beauties abound.
Future World and World
Showcase are palettes of brilliant color with more than 30
million blooms during
the annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
In bloom for the festival are elaborate topiaries, gardening
seminars, demonstrations, the Flower
Power concert series, themed weekends and children's
activities that include exploring a butterfly conservatory.
Floral Fun & 'Going
Green’ Paints Landscape March 18-May 3 1, 2009, During
16th
Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Epcot
blooms with more than 30 million colorful blossoms, fanciful
Disney-themed topiaries,
interactive activities for kids, musical concerts by famous
chart-topping acts, and workshops with
national gardening experts during this annual spring
festival.
(Press
release and images above Copyright Disney)
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