Held on the final Friday each August, “la batalla de flores” — as it's known in Spanish — is an annual parade that began on water in 1908. The event transitioned onto land in 1909 and incorporated floats decorated with colorful flowers. The parade was declared a Festival of Touristic Interest by the Spanish government in 1965.

New Zealand’s lupins are beautiful, but they also pose an ongoing threat to the region’s ecology. These tall flower spires were introduced to the region over 100 years ago, and can be found along the banks of large bodies of water like Lake Tekapo on the nation’s South Island. Lupins produce their biggest blooms between November and February.

Canola flowers, also known as rapeseed, grow in abundance in Laoping County in Yunnan, China. These bright yellow flowers grow vibrantly in fields, helping beekeepers during their February and March bloom. The blooms are so popular and culturally significant to the area that locals hold an annual canola flower festival each spring.

The golden wattle has been used by Indigenous peoples in what is now Australia for millennia to make food, medicine, weaponry, and more. The flowers became symbolic during World War I and were sold to raise funds for the war effort. A sprig of wattle (albeit a botanically incorrect one) has appeared on the country’s Coat of Arms since 1912.

Beginning in Cape Town and ending about 500 miles north in Port Nolloth, the Namaqualand Flower Route showcases the area’s signature Namaqualand daisies, as well as 3,500 other species of flowers. En route, you can make stops at stunning destinations like the Hantam National Botanical Gardens and the Skilpad Wildflower Reserve. South Africa’s spring occurs during the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn, so most flowers will bloom between August and October.

A visit to the Hallerbos in Belgium will make you feel as though you’ve stepped into a fairy tale. Also known as the “Blue Forest,” Hallerbos is most beautiful during the blooming season in April and May. The forest’s beech trees cover over 1,360 acres, and millions of bluebells carpet the forest floor in a stunning periwinkle color each spring.

Dahlias were an important source of food and medicine for the Aztecs. By the early 19th century, botanists had developed double forms of the flower, improved its globe-like shape, and produced an array of colors ensuring the dahlia gained widespread popularity. In 1963 the dahlia was named the national flower of Mexico.

Mainau, known in English as the “Flower Island,” is an island in southwestern Germany where flowers are in bloom year-round — from yellow Oregon grape flowers in wintry January to sherbet-colored frangipani in August. The island also has a fascinating history, having housed a naval base and a monastery. It eventually wound up in the hands of Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden, who greatly expanded its horticultural delights.

Wales selected daffodils as the national flower because they not only represent optimism, but they are also one of the local symbols of spring. The Welsh even have a superstition that the person to spot the year’s first daffodil will enjoy 12 months of wealth. The flower tends to bloom around St. David’s Day on March 1, the national day of Wales

You can wander through this stunning wisteria tunnel in Japan’s Kawachi Fuji Gardens. The purple and white floral cascades bloom between late April and early May, so there's only a small window of time each year during which you can experience the tunnel in its full glory. There are 150 wisteria plants and 20 different species that make up the fairy-tale-esque tunnel.

In the United Kingdom, it’s common to see people wearing a red poppy on their lapel as a symbol of remembrance for fallen soldiers. The tradition dates back to World War I, when the Flanders poppy made a striking splash of crimson on the otherwise bleak landscape. Afterwards, the Royal British Legion started selling them annually to raise funds for veterans.

Padua’s Orto Botanico was established in 1545 as the world’s first botanical garden. The site maintains its original layout and is home to over 6,000 species of plants. The garden’s layout and architecture has inspired countless other botanical gardens found throughout Italy and Europe.

The Rafflesia arnoldii produces the world’s largest flower bloom, growing up to three feet wide and weighing up to 15 pounds. The species is native to Southeast Asia, where it lives as a parasite on plants of the Tetrastigma genus. The massive reddish flowers emit the scent of rotting meat, hence their more common name — the corpse flower.

High up in the Himalayas, India’s Valley of Flowers National Park is known for lush carpets of alpine blossoms amid glaciers and snow-capped mountains. The valley, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to at least 300 species of flowers, as well as a variety of rare and threatened animal species, including the Asiatic black bear, snow leopard, and blue sheep.

Five states have designated roses official flowers, making it the most popular official state flower. Georgia has the Cherokee rose, Oklahoma celebrates its namesake Oklahoma rose, Iowa has the wild rose, New York honors the common rose, and North Dakota claims the wild prairie rose. The rose is also the national flower of the United States.

The bluebonnet is the official state flower of Texas, and though the blue-purple flowers can be spotted in a variety of locations across the state, your best bet for seeing lots of them at once is to head to Hill Country, a picturesque region of central and south Texas. Several different cities in Hill Country claim the title of “Bluebonnet Capital of Texas,” including Ennis, Burnet, and Llano.

Superblooms follow unprecedented rainfall as winter turns to spring in the desert. In the best years, southern California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park gets entirely blanketed with up to 92 plant families, 346 genera, and hundreds of different species of wildflowers that appear in bursts of purple, white, yellow, and other stunning colors. To find out whether one of these phenomenal events will occur, you’ll have to follow the weather.

Part of the mint family, lavender is prolific in the region of southeastern France known as Provence. Blooming in a vibrant powdery purple color, lavender has a pleasant, calming scent, and is cultivated for all kinds of culinary, medicinal, and aesthetic purposes. Some lavender farms welcome visitors to tour the fields and take home essential oils, soaps, and other sweet-smelling goods.

"Sakura" is the Japanese word for cherry blossom, and thousands of visitors from around the world flock to Japan in the spring months to experience these gorgeous buds blossoming. For a few weeks each year, typically from late March to mid-April, people participate in hanami, or "flower viewing." The flowers can be seen all across the country, and typically start blooming from south to north.

While tulips are native to Asia, the flowers boomed in popularity after they were introduced to the Netherlands in 1593. In fact, they were so prized in Holland that the Dutch once traded tulip bulbs as a form of currency. These days, flower enthusiasts travel far and wide to see the Netherlands’ Keukenhof Tulip Gardens. The Netherlands is also the world’s largest exporter of tulip bulbs.