Early blossoming likely means early full bloom at this breathtaking park within day-trip distance of Tokyo.

Cherry blossom season doesn’t last very long, and there’s often a twinge of sadness that comes from watching the last petals swirl and scatter in the wind as they fall from the tree’s branches. But while that’s an understandable emotional reaction, it’s important to remember that there’s an alternative to feeling wistful: focusing on wisteria.

Yes, Japan’s next entry in the country’s list of stunning seasonal flowers are going to be hitting their peak bloom over the next couple of weeks, and the buds have already opened at Ashikaga Flower Park, which includes what’s widely considered east Japan’s most beautiful wisteria garden.

Located in the town of Ashikaga in Tochigi Prefecture, the park has more than 350 wisteria trees, but the star is the Great Wisteria, whose branches create a flower canopy some 1,000 square meters (10,764 square feet) in size.

Yes, that’s all one tree in the photos directly above and below, and if you’re guessing that it must have been there a long time to grow so big, you’re absolutely right, as the Great Wisteria is more than 160 years old.

Ordinarily, the Great Wisteria begins flowering in the middle of April. It’s gotten an early start this year, though, with its first blossoms opening on April 8, and it should be at full-bloom within a week or two, looking like the photos seen here from last year.

Also starting to bloom about a week earlier than usual are the park’s usubeni fuji, or “soft pink wisteria.”

The early arrival of the flowers has caused Ashikaga Flower Park to also move up the start of its after-sundown light-up event. Originally scheduled for April 18 to May 20, it’ll now be starting on April 15 instead, making the park’s hours of operation during wisteria season as shown below.
● April 11-14: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
● April 15-17: 8 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
● April 18-May 6: 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
● May 7-May 17: 8 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
● May 18-May 20: 9 a.m.-8:30 p.m.

While the park is definitely worth visiting even if you can only go during daylight hours, after dark the intensity of the colors gets kicked up a notch as they contrast against the dark sky, and the reflections formed in the garden’s bodies of water make it feel like you’ve been transported to a space with wisteria both above and below.

In most years, the park says that the best time to view the flowers is between late April and early May for the Great Wisteria, between mid and late April for the usubeni fuji, early May for its tunnel of white wisteria, and late April to early May for the Yae Kokuryu wisteria. With the early start of blossoming this year, however, the timetable for full bloom is probably going to be moved up by about a week or so.

▼ Yae Kokuryu wisteria.

Ashikaga Flower Park is just a three-minute walk from the appropriately named Ashikaga Flower Park Station on the Ryomo Line, which can be reached from Tokyo in just a little more than 90 minutes, making it an easy day trip from the capital. And if you’re looking for even more post-sakura springtime flowers to enjoy, there’s a place in Yamanashi Prefecture that you won’t want to miss either.

Related: Ashikaga Flower Park official website
Source, images: PR Times
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