In early March I spent an afternoon at the Nanning Garden Expo Park and let me tell you: It was one of those days when I had no high expectations, but came away pleasantly surprised. First of all, the park is HUGE (so much bigger than I thought), and divided into various sections, each with its own garden style. I mainly visited for the snapdragon bloom, which was a lot of fun, but also found myself wandering around rock formations and zen gardens equally as much.
I liked that it was really quiet there for a weekend. I picked up a map at entrance. It helped me realize very fast that it would take most of the day to cover everything, so I had to pick and choose.
Here is what I got up to in the afternoon.
What I Saw at the Park
Nanning Garden Expo Park
This is main entrance gate into the timber; it’s all clean moddern design that doesn’t really give any clue of what’s behind it. Just by the front door, they’d hung up a March flower viewing guide so I stopped off to see what parts of it was blooming now. Obviously the snapdragons is what everyone was coming to see, but there were also a couple of others marked on it.
However, I’ll start by saying that Japanese-style rock garden I stumbled upon was what really took me aback. This is not what I expected from what I thought was going to be flower park! It had all those elements of traditional zen gardens: sculpted pines shaped as if trained over the years, carefully placed boulders, and raked gravel.
It even had a multi-tiered waterfall cascading down into a rock pond in one part, and winding pathways made off stone. I walked around this garden for a solid 20 minutes, it’s the type of space where you instinctively slow down and become quiet.
There’s a lot to see here, so much so that they has an electric cart service running around the park. I saw a handful of people taking those to get between main areas; in fact, if you only have a short amount of time (or it’s really hot outside), I’d suggest using the cart. It’s easy walking too: the paths is all well kept and there are even these nice-looking topiary trees lining some of the main trails.
There’s also an overall map that you should check out a couple times just to get your bearings. Since themed gardens aren’t necessarily clustered together in the most logical way.
Next came the snapdragon fields. And yeah, those things were in full bloom too. The entire hillsides was filled with nothing but them.
Big sections was planted together, and the flowers were everywhere. Normally flowers don’t do much for me, but this was impressive. Beyond having just rows and rows of blooms, they also had some sort of ribbon sculptures installed above some of the beds that added a little something else visually.
It was really neat. The fields stretched along lake, and with the bare winter trees in the background, it actually made for a nice contrast. I spent some time walking along water and taking waaaayyyy too many pictures.
And then the snapdragons kept on coming. And there’s a sign that says “Flowers Fill the Garden,” and it is not an exaggeration. They stretched along lake.
In one part of garden they were just a single variety, and fields have been carpeted on the hillside like this. By April though, they begin to fade, which actually makes March maybe best month to come here. Apparently gardeners does two seasons (they plant twice per year), but springtime is always peak.
I chatted with one of the gardeners and he told me that, and said springtime was bigger show.
On my way out, I circled back around a different zen garden space, which featured even more of those beautifully sculpted pines (some of which were trained to look like giant bonsai). Again, the level of care in their pruning was really something; it’s clear somebody spend serious time maintaining these. After all of the paved walkways everywhere else, I appreciated how this one had simple gravel paths.
I walked back out toward end of the loop. I passed through an old-fashioned courtyard with steps leading up to a pavilion at its entrance. There were stepping-stones across bamboo grove and more rock garden formations tucked away in various corners.
Each one was assembled slightly different, yet all followed the same quiet look. A last display of pine trees and boulders marked the exit pathway, and by the time I was gone, I felt as if I’d visited three separate parks. In the end, I spent roughly three hours here, and I think it was enough time to hit high points but not rush through things.
If you’re interested in traditional garden design (or flowers…or both, I guess), this is a good one to visit; it’s also a big space so it will work for those who like gardens but don’t want to spend too long walking around. Do I wish I should of gone again? Maybe I will go back in another season to see what the plants look like then.
Have you visited a large garden park that took you by surprise with all of its offerings?
