The second half of 2026 delivers a global flower circuit that trades spring’s cherry blossoms and tulip fields for a looser, more varied mix of royal debuts, harvest festivals, giant vegetables and hand-built dahlia floats. After a spring dominated by Taipei’s cherry blossoms, Lisse’s tulips and major shows in Philadelphia and London, the remainder of the year features events stretching from a new RHS show on a royal estate in Norfolk to a ten-day flower festival in Medellín, and from the world’s largest flower parade in the Netherlands to a giant-vegetable championship in Worcestershire. Here is what remains on the calendar, and what each event offers visitors.
RHS Sandringham Flower Show: A Royal Estate Opens Its Gates (July 22–26)
The most significant shift in British horticulture in years takes effect this summer. The Royal Horticultural Society, after announcing in 2024 that it would overhaul its show calendar—making Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival biennial and Tatton Park a triennial event—launched a touring model in 2025 at Wentworth Woodhouse. This year, two new venues debuted: Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire (July 8–12) and, for the first time, Sandringham Estate in Norfolk (July 22–26).
Sandringham, the private country retreat of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, anchors the show with the RHS Royal Legacy Garden, designed by Catherine MacDonald of Landform Consultants in direct consultation with the monarch. Early previews describe a garden built around fractals and branching patterns, with winding paths through a biodiverse mix of trees and perennials, many of them the King’s favorite species. The garden is paired with Long Borders mentored by Chelsea veteran Tom Hoblyn and a series of Show Gardens celebrating Norfolk’s landscapes.
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. Nearby, at Badminton, Jo Thompson’s Archers 75th Anniversary Garden—a scene-for-scene recreation of the fictional Bridge Farm from BBC Radio 4’s rural drama—drew strong reviews, as did Tom Stuart-Smith’s Julia Rausing Garden, at 2,400 square meters the largest show garden the RHS has ever staged. Together, Badminton and Sandringham test whether the RHS’s touring model can replicate the loyalty of Hampton Court and Tatton Park; early signs are positive.
Feria de las Flores: Medellín’s Ten-Day Flower Festival (July 31 – August 9)
As Sandringham concludes, Colombia’s largest annual celebration begins. The Feria de las Flores in Medellín runs its 69th edition from July 31 to August 9, featuring concerts, classic car parades, farmers’ markets and Antioquian folk music across more than 30 locations.
The festival climaxes on the final Sunday with the Desfile de Silleteros. 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 includes more than 500 silleteros of all ages, including children and participants with disabilities, walking a 2.4-kilometer route to Plaza Mayor, where the floral monuments remain on display for days. It is the largest showcase of hand-carried floral craft in the world, rooted in the region’s flower-growing economy rather than formal garden design.
Southport Flower Show: UK’s Largest Independent Show (August 20–23)
Back in England, late August belongs to Southport Flower Show, which bills itself as the UK’s largest independent flower show and has run at Victoria Park since 1924. Unlike RHS events, 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 is deliberate: perennials and annuals are at their seasonal peak, making the Grand Floral Marquee saturated with color. New for 2026 is “The Lakeside Reset,” a redesigned water-feature area offering a calmer counterpoint. Competitive classes for cut flowers, pot plants and specialist grower exhibits are judged by midday each day, with ribbons displayed immediately. The Garden Theatre lineup opens with broadcaster and horticulturist Adam Frost.
Bloemencorso Zundert: World’s Largest Flower Parade (September 6–7)
In the Netherlands, autumn opens with Bloemencorso Zundert, held in the North Brabant town on the first weekend of September. The entire parade is built around a single flower: the dahlia. Twenty neighborhood teams spend the year cultivating dahlia fields—about eight million blooms are used in total, some six million grown locally in Zundert—before the final “Stick Week,” when volunteers attach the flowers by hand onto enormous steel-and-papier-mâché float structures reaching 19 meters long and 9 meters high.
The floats parade through town Sunday afternoon, judged by an independent jury, with a public exhibition day Monday allowing close inspection. Founded in 1936, the event is recognized on the Netherlands’ national inventory of intangible cultural heritage and remains the largest flower parade in the world, built entirely by volunteers.
Malvern Autumn Show: UK’s Biggest Harvest Celebration (September 25–27)
Closing the season, the Malvern Autumn Show returns to Three Counties Showground in Worcestershire, positioning itself as a full harvest festival. Alongside RHS floral displays and more than 100 “Grow to Show” competitive classes for cut flowers, succulents, fruit and vegetables, the show’s centerpiece is the CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship, where growers chase Guinness World Records for marrows, giant green beans, super-sized sunflowers and enormous pumpkins.
It ends a flower-show year that, across continents, consistently emphasized gardens and growers responding to season, place and community. Malvern’s giant vegetables and Zundert’s dahlia floats sit at one end of that spectrum, built from months of unglamorous cultivation; Sandringham’s royal borders and Southport’s peak-season marquees sit at the other.
Worth Watching For
Regional chrysanthemum and dahlia society shows continue through October and November across the UK, including Bishop Auckland’s Late Chrysanthemum Show in early November. All outdoor events remain weather-dependent; given 2026’s volatile conditions—a wet, record-warm June following a deluge-heavy January—late-summer and autumn show reports are likely to include as much discussion of irrigation and heat-stressed bedding plants as of the blooms themselves.