LONDON — After a first half of 2026 dominated by cherry blossoms in Taipei, tulips in Lisse and major spring showcases in Philadelphia and London, the global flower calendar shifts into a season of royal debuts, harvest festivals, and parades built entirely from dahlias. From a new Royal Horticultural Society show on King Charles III’s private Norfolk estate to Medellín’s ten-day flower festival and the world’s largest flower parade in the Netherlands, here is what remains on the international circuit.
RHS Sandringham Flower Show: A Royal Estate Opens Its Gates
The most significant shake-up to British horticulture in years arrives July 22-26 when the RHS debuts its first-ever flower show at Sandringham Estate, the private country retreat of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The show is part of a larger RHS overhaul: Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival now runs biennially, Tatton Park shifts to once every three years, and the organization has launched touring shows at new venues.
The centerpiece is the RHS Royal Legacy Garden, designed by Catherine MacDonald of Landform Consultants in direct consultation with the King. Early previews describe a garden built around fractal patterns and branching forms found in nature, with winding paths through biodiverse trees and perennials planted with the monarch’s favorite species. A series of Long Borders mentored by Chelsea veteran Tom Hoblyn and Show Gardens celebrating Norfolk’s landscapes round out the program.
Beyond the headline garden, the show includes a Floral Marquee with more than 50 specialist growers, a Flower School, a Summer Fruit and Vegetable Competition for junior growers, and a “Leaf Letters” activity where children write messages to the King and Queen on hand-chosen leaves.
The show follows the RHS’s July 8-12 debut at Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire, where Jo Thompson’s Archers 75th Anniversary Garden recreated Bridge Farm from BBC Radio 4’s rural drama, and Tom Stuart-Smith’s Julia Rausing Garden became the largest show garden the RHS has ever staged at 2,400 square meters. Early reviews suggest the touring model is off to a strong start.
Feria de las Flores: Medellín’s Ten-Day Festival
As Sandringham wraps up, Colombia’s most celebrated flower festival begins. The 69th edition of Feria de las Flores runs July 31 through August 9 across more than 30 locations and 100 public events in Medellín, featuring concerts, classic car parades, farmers’ markets and Antioquian folk music.
The festival builds toward the closing Desfile de Silleteros on the final Sunday. Flower farmers from the mountain community of Santa Elena carry elaborate floral arrangements called silletas strapped to their backs — some standing over three meters tall and weighing up to 80 kilograms, built over months using dozens of flower varieties. This year’s parade will include more than 500 silleteros of all ages, with dedicated categories for children and participants with disabilities, walking a 2.4-kilometer route to Plaza Mayor. It remains the world’s single largest showcase of hand-carried floral craft.
Southport Flower Show: UK’s Largest Independent Show
Late August belongs to Southport’s Victoria Park, where the UK’s largest independent flower show runs August 20-23. Unlike RHS shows, there are no members-only preview days — the show opens to everyone across all four days, drawing more than 55,000 visitors.
The late-August timing places perennials and annuals at their seasonal peak, making the Grand Floral Marquee at its most saturated. New for 2026 is “The Lakeside Reset,” a redesigned water-feature area offering a calmer counterpoint to the busy showground. Competitive classes for cut flowers, pot plants and specialist exhibits are judged by midday each day. Broadcaster and horticulturist Adam Frost opens the Garden Theatre lineup.
Bloemencorso Zundert: World’s Largest Flower Parade Returns
The Netherlands opens autumn with Bloemencorso Zundert on September 6-7, a parade built entirely around the dahlia. Twenty neighborhood teams spend the whole year cultivating dahlia fields — roughly eight million blooms in total, six million grown locally in Zundert itself — before spending “Stick Week” hand-attaching flowers onto enormous steel-and-papier-mâché float structures reaching 19 meters long and 9 meters high.
Floats parade through town Sunday afternoon, judged by an independent jury, with a public exhibition Monday allowing visitors to appreciate the density of flowers up close. Founded in 1936 and recognized on the Netherlands’ national inventory of intangible cultural heritage, it remains the world’s largest flower parade, built entirely by volunteers.
Malvern Autumn Show: UK’s Biggest Harvest Celebration
The season closes September 25-27 at Three Counties Showground in Worcestershire, where the Malvern Autumn Show positions itself as a full harvest festival. Alongside RHS floral displays and more than 100 “Grow to Show” competitive classes, the show’s best-known fixture is the CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship, where competitive growers chase Guinness World Records with marrows, giant green beans, super-sized sunflowers and enormous pumpkins.
Worth Watching For
Regional chrysanthemum and dahlia society shows run through October and into November across the UK, including Bishop Auckland’s Late Chrysanthemum Show in early November. As with all outdoor events at this scale, most shows remain weather-dependent. After a wet, record-warm June following a deluge-heavy January, late-summer and autumn show reports may include as much discussion of irrigation and heat-stressed bedding plants as of the blooms themselves.