Japan may be best known for its cherry blossoms, but the country’s wisteria gardens are just as beautiful. A particular famous spot is the wisteria tunnel at the Kawachi Fuji Garden in Kitakyushu, about six hours away from Tokyo. This private garden is a popular place to view these fairy-tale-like trees whose cascading tresses of flowers range from white to pale blue and purple. The garden is open to public during wisteria season from end April to early May. Due to crowd control during peak season, advance reservations are required to enter the garden.

Another place to see these flowers is in the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi Prefecture – about 90 minutes from Tokyo. This park is home to lots of blue, white and pink wisteria. Look out for a 100-year-old wisteria tree with blue flowers and a long tunnel of white wisteria flowers. The flowers here are usually in full bloom at the start of May.

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Japan’s tulip season happens from late April to early May. The town of Tonami Toyama Prefecture is a leading producer of tulip bulbs in the country.

For visitors, Tonami Tulip Park is one of the most famous places in Japan to see the these stunning flowrs – we’re talking about three million bulbs of 300 varieties. Look out for the Valley of Flowers, a 30m corridor of 4m high tulips. The 2023 Tonami Tulip fair takes place here from 22 April to 5 May. During this period, free shuttle buses will connect the Tonami Tulip Park with JR Tonami Station. This place is around eight hours from Tokyo.

For something closer to the capital, you can visit the Sakura Furusato Hiroba in Chiba Prefecture, which also has a beautiful showcase of colourful tulips.

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The famous Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki Prefecture is blanketed with nemophila flowers (also called baby blue eyes) from late April to mid-May. There are 4 to 5 million pretty light blue blooms planted around the hills and fields – reminiscent of a blue ocean. Located about two hours from Tokyo in the city of Hitachinaka, the park faces the Pacific Ocean.

In spring time, the area is also home to bright yellow narcissuses and multi-coloured tulips. In autumn, the area is cloaked in bright red thanks to round kochia plants (think: fluffy round flowers in Dr Seuss’ The Lorax). If you are there in early summer, you’ll see poppies and roses.

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Yes there are plenty of cherry blossom trees around Seoul. But you know it’s spring when Seoul’s official flower – forsythia – is in full bloom around late March to early April. These flowers are commonly called gaenari or Korean goldenbell.

Eungbongsan Mountain in Seoul’s Seongdong district is one of the best places to view these yellow flowers, a native plant in Korea. You can hike up about 30 minutes to enjoy view of the Han River and the cityscape. There’s a pagoda-style pavilion which hosts events like the during the annual Forsythia Festival.

The national flower of China is meihua or plum blossom. In Beijing, the trees flower from mid March to mid April. The best place to see these pink blossoms is in the Ming Dynasty City Wall Relics Park, located south of Beijing Railway Station.

The Beijing Botanical Garden is where you can see thousands of peach trees, a species native to China. There are about 70 variety of peach trees planted here including ornamental peach trees, big peach trees, chrysanthemum peach trees and more. The flowers bloom from mid April to mid May. Just like the cherry blossom, each plum and peach flower has five pink petals.

In Taipei you can view cherry blossoms from March to early April. But what’s really unique is the Tung flower. These snow-white blooms are found on many hilltops across Taiwan from April to May. These trees were brought to Taiwan from mainland China. The Japanese first planted them in hilly regions during the colonial period (1895 to 1945).

They are largely found in Hakka settlements in northern and central Taiwan’s mountainous area. Hence the flowers are seen as a symbol of Taiwan Hakka culture. Considered an important crop for Hakka families in the early days, the trees have seeds which produce water-resistant Tung oil used for furniture and paper umbrellas. The popular Hakka Tung Flower Festival which will take place in May 2023 also features cultural events and Hakka cuisine.