Japan doesn’t have one famous flower season. It has twelve.

Higanbana native amaryllis at Kinchakuda, near Koma Station

This is your sign from the universe to stop trying to find some way to be in Japan for the ten days of Classic Pinkness, because you’re about to get clued in on the other flower wow that Japan has been dishing up year-round for centuries.

Because there isn’t just one flower season in Japan. There are twelve.

Plum blossom displays kick the year off when other trees are still brown and bare, from mid-February to mid-March.

*Weeping plum blossoms at Soga Bairin, in Odawara*

In mid-March, the season for early-blooming kanzakura cherries

*Early* kanzakura cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyōen National Garden in Shinjuku

and the weeping shidarezakura varieties begins, a week ahead of the classic pink clouds and crowds.

*Early* shidarezakura *weeping cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyōen National Garden in Shinjuku*

Fast-forward to mid-April (after the price-hiking somei yoshino have disappeared), fluffy double yaezakura cherry blossoms begin to burst.

*Late-blooming* yaezakura cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyōen National Garden in Shinjuku

Mid-April also ushers in eye-poppingly brilliant vistas of azaleas…

*Azaleas at Jindai Botanical Garden in Chofu*

along with a rainbow of peonies as big as your head.

*Peonies at Nishiarai Daishi temple near Daishi-mae Station*

These gracefully give way to curtains of fragrant wisteria at the end of April through the first week in May.

*Wisteria at Kameido Tenjin shrine near Kameido Station*

Late May brings oceans of butterfly-like Japanese iris…

*Japanese iris at Horikiri Shobu-en garden near Horikirishobuen Station*

followed by waterfalls of native hydrangeas for the entire month of June.

*Hydrangeas at Hasedera temple in Kamakura*

In July, it’s time to stroll among the lotus flowers.

*Lotus flowers at Yakushiike Park in Machida*

Lush greenery takes center stage until the September solstice, when the native higanbana amaryllis carpet hillsides and forests in a sea of crimson.

Mid- to late-September is also when that most ancient of Japanese flower traditions, the bush clover tunnel, invites a shady stroll…

*Bush clover tunnel at Mukojima Hyakka-en garden near Mukojima Station*

and finally, I bet you never thought you’d consider planning a trip around the lowly chrysanthemum, but November is when Japanese bonsai masters turn their expertise to shaping Japan’s imperial flower into forms so magnificent…

*Chrysanthemums at Shinjuku Gyōen National Garden in Shinjuku*

you’ll use up all your phone storage snapping photos.

*Chrysanthemums at the Yushima Shrine near Yushima Station*

And best of all? Many of Tokyo’s most visit-worthy parks, shrines, and temples cultivate shining examples of all of these lovelies on their grounds, to make themselves a must-see destination in every season.

Here’s when they all bloom:

Must-see destinations with fabulous seasonal flowers

The square buttons link to places worth seeing even if nothing is blooming; the “show me” link goes to all the most spectacular flower displays in and around Tokyo, even if the place itself wouldn’t be much of a draw without them.

Plum blossoms
Mid-Feb to mid-March