Sydney's Best Spring Flower Spots

(Free, Paid, and Worth the Drive)

Every Spring, half of Sydney's Instagram turns the same shade of pastel. Kirribilli's jacarandas get all the credit for purple, and fair enough, they've earned it. What they don't deserve is being the only flower story anyone tells about this city.

We love a good garden or park full of colour so we've spent the past few springs tracking down what else is blooming, some of it free, some of it not, and some of it worth a proper day trip. Here's where to go, roughly in order of how much it'll cost you.

The Free Stuff Nobody Warns You About

Cherrybrook Station's cherry blossoms that aren't cherry blossoms

Somewhere between Castle Hill and Epping, right on the metro line, flowering plum trees run along both platforms and put on a two-week show every spring that looks lifted straight out of Tokyo. Locals have started calling it the "sakura station," despite the trees being flowering plum rather than true cherry blossom. Nobody's bothered to correct the nickname, us included.

Catch it at its peak from late August into early September. Skip the station's own car park unless you enjoy paying a flat $35 for the privilege. There's cheaper street parking a short walk away, or just take the metro. its totally worth the trip. If you feel like hanging around you can also visit Cumberland state forest which is a short 10 min walk away. There is a lovely cafe to grab a coffee or lunch amid beautiful native forest or if you are feeling more energetic go on the Tree Tops Experience. We are talking literally harness and helmets. Its a totally wild and a little hair raising day out.

Kirribilli's McDougall Street, and everywhere else the jacarandas turn up

McDougall Street earns its reputation. From mid-October the whole street goes purple overhead, and every second person walking through has a camera out. But the jacarandas don't stop there, and treating McDougall Street as the only stop is how you miss the better ones.

Glebe Point Road gets its own lilac canopy running through the Inner West, with plenty of cafes to duck into once you've taken your photos. The University of Sydney's quadrangle has been growing jacarandas since a clone replaced the campus's famous 88-year-old tree back in 2017. Circular Quay and First Fleet Park, right by the MCA, give you jacaranda blossoms with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge doing the background work for free. And along Oxford Street in Paddington, the sandstone wall of Victoria Barracks gets a purple carpet most Octobers, with Five Ways and Glenmore Road's boutiques close enough for an easy detour.

Beecroft's Hannah Street, for something other than purple

If jacaranda purple isn't your thing, Hannah Street in Beecroft puts on its own spring display in white. The street is lined with ornamental pears (Pyrus). The blossoms produce a dense canopy of snow-white Blossoms and this annual event is a local highlight. It's a quieter part of the Hills District, well away from the usual spring flower crowds, which is more or less the whole appeal. Hop off at Beecroft station and walk up Hannah St under the canopy of white blossoms to Long Shot cafe for a coffee in the courtyard. You'll have to time this one too as the bloom won't last. The late August to September should catch them flowering.

Weekend in Wistaria, if you want the full festival experience for free

Parramatta Park runs this one every September, 19 and 20 this year, and it is properly free. (Not "free with a $15 parking fee" free). Wisteria tunnels, cherry blossoms, flowering fruit trees, and more than 18,000 annuals planted just for the occasion, this year themed around soft whites, blues and lavender. Bring a picnic rug and get there earlier in the day. The blooms only hold for two to three weeks, so don't leave it too late in the month.

Worth Paying For

The Chinese Garden of Friendship, Darling Harbour

Entry runs around $12, which feels expensive until you go inside and realise what you get for your money. Through spring the garden fills with magnolias, forest pansies, azaleas and Chinese plum blossom, all inside a walled garden that somehow makes you forget you're two minutes from Tumbalong Park. The garden's own cherry blossoms peak a little later than most, around mid-October, so it's worth planning two visits if you're serious about it. One Dining runs a high tea inside the garden as well, if you'd rather make an afternoon of it than a quick walk-through.

Worth the Drive

Mid-Mountains Garden Festival, Blue Mountains

Eleven private gardens between Linden and Lawson open their gates across two weekends, 12 to 13 and 19 to 20 September this year, raising funds for the local primary school. It's ticketed, it's intimate, and it rewards the kind of visitor who'd rather wander someone's actual garden than fight a festival crowd for a photo.

Tulip Time Festival, Bowral

Eighty thousand tulips, planted in Corbett Gardens for one purpose: making sure spring actually feels like it happened. It's about an hour and a half south in the Southern Highlands, so this is a day trip rather than an afternoon out, but the CWA scone stall alone is worth the drive. You could also take the train if you need.

If there's a blossom street we've missed, tell us. We take spring photography more seriously than is probably reasonable.

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