Tickets are on sale now for the Point Defiance Flower & Garden Festival June 1-2 at Point Defiance Park and extending into the Rose Garden, Japanese Garden and Pagoda. Visitors will enjoy a weekend surrounded by color as they tour the park’s famous gardens, meet some of the Northwest’s best known horticultural experts like Ciscoe Morris, Sue Goetz and Marianne Binetti, create works of botanical art to take home and more.
The festival is free to attend and features six different ticketed opportunities, with multiple times available. Attendees can enjoy more than a dozen self-guided experiences through eight permanent gardens, fantastic displays created exclusively for this festival, live music and a vendor area featuring more than sixty local artisans, businesses, farms, nurseries and food options.
Ticketed events include a lecture series featuring in-depth dives on everything from using containers to grow food on even the smallest patio to the how’s and why’s of human composting and the sustainable death care movement. Tickets are sold separately for Saturday and Sunday and allow admission to attend any, or all, of that day’s sessions.
For artists or anyone looking to get their hands into the dirt, tickets can be purchased to Make and Take workshops. Learn how to mount a staghorn fern — easily spotted growing on trees throughout the park’s trails — or create your own humid rainforest in a tiny terrarium. Anyone 21+ can also purchase admission to one of the scheduled Paint and Sip programs, which includes two beverages (beer, wine or non-alcoholic) and an instructor guiding the group to create their own unique work of art.
Local wines and beers can also be enjoyed during the Rose Garden Happy Hour on Saturday evening after the main festival has closed for the day. Tasting packages featuring wine or beer will be available all day in the tasting garden throughout the weekend. Proceeds from both the happy hour and tasting packages will directly benefit the Fort Nisqually Foundation.
Tickets are expected to go fast, so don’t wait. Last year’s festival brought an estimated 15,000 people into Point Defiance Park and this year is expected to be even bigger. Parking will be limited, so plan ahead and consider taking advantage of public transportation or carpooling with your friends. The more the merrier!
Find tickets for sale, a list of speakers, event information and more on the festival website at PtDefianceGardenFest.org.
Festival Details:
Where: The Flower & Garden Festival will take place in Point Defiance Park with programming on the main lawn and in the Rose Garden and Japanese Garden and Pagoda.
When: The festival will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Rose Garden Happy Hour will be held on Saturday, June 1 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
What: The Point Defiance Flower and Garden Festival includes tours, lectures, crafts, vendors, live music and more.
Free All-Ages Attractions
Vendor Village: Get expert advice from horticulture experts, pick up a treasure from local artists and nurseries, or grab a bite to eat at one of the many food trucks.
Children’s Wonder & Grow Garden: Explore the storybook-themed garden area featuring a planting craft, bubble station, scavenger hunt, games and fantasy gardens created by high school students from the Science and Math Institute (SAMi).
The Secret Garden: Winner of the Founder’s Cup (Best in Show) at this year’s Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle, Nature Perfect Landscape & Design will bring their enchanting faerie garden to Point Defiance. Featuring a whimsical landscape nestled into an old-growth stump fifteen feet across, this mystical oasis will inspire and captivate young adventurers and those young at heart.
Ikebana Arrangements: Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging, will be on display in the Pagoda. Visit with members from the Tacoma-Olympia Chapter of Ikebana International and view their spectacular flower arrangements.
Tacoma Kitakyushu Sister City Display: Step inside the Pagoda to learn about Tacoma’s Japanese Sister City Kitakyushu through an interactive display presented by the Tacoma Kitakyushu Sister City Committee. On Saturday at 2 p.m., enjoy a performance by the Seattle Kokon Taiko Drummers in the Japanese Garden.
21+ Events
Wine and Beer Tasting Garden: Sample regional wines and craft beers from 12-5:30 p.m. both days. Purchase a tasting package for $32 that includes seven tasting tokens and souvenir tasting glass. Minors accompanied by an adult may be present in the tasting garden during festival hours.
Rose Garden Happy Hour (21+ only): Bring your friends to this cover-free happy hour in the Point Defiance Rose Garden on Saturday. Sample local wine and beer while enjoying live local music from 6:30-8:30 p.m. after the festival closes for the day. Proceeds benefit the Fort Nisqually Foundation and Metro Parks’ horticultural programs.
Ticketed Garden Tours
Rose Garden: Guided tour of the Point Defiance Rose Garden by a member of the Point Defiance Rose Garden Association.
Japanese Garden: A highlight of the garden’s unique features, plants and history led by one of Metro Parks’ horticultural experts.
Ticketed Lecture Series
Saturday: Mindfulness in Nature, Create a Garden You’ll Love, A Garden and Career Grown from Seed, Easy Container Gardening for Food and Flavor, Recompose Human Composting
Sunday: Native Plants that Attract Birds to Your Garden, Growing a Living Tree Arbor, Tacoma Rose Society, Happy Hoyas, Low Maintenance Landscapes
Ticketed Artistic Expressions
Staghorn Fern Mounting Workshop: In this class, participants will be mounting mini staghorn ferns onto bark to mimic their natural growth. You will learn how and why this plant prefers to grow mounted, and how amazing nature is through their eyes!
Tiny Terrarium Workship: Create your own tiny plant paradise with ferns, mosses and decorative components in a closed decorative jar. Learn how to correctly build your own terrariums, keep them clean from the start, and the overall care required for them to thrive.
Every Herb Has a Story: Come and discover the herbs in your garden. Start with their beauty in the landscape and then discover how to create culinary treats, body care products, and household remedies. Growing tips and recipe ideas are included. Attendees will make a small fresh Herbal Tussie Mussie to take home.
Flower Pride! A Floral Crown Workshop: Join local garden expert and floral designer Riz Reyes and celebrate the start of Pride Month by creating your very own fancy, fresh and fragrant flower crown to take home. Learn different techniques for assembling flowers to wear for any special event.
Paint and Sip (21+ only): Sip on a selection of beverages (beer, wine or non-alcoholic) and follow along with the instructor to create a work of art to take home.
