China Flower News, Shanghai, April 18, 2025    Author: Li Ying

The spring breeze caresses the face and flowers bloom in Shanghai. The 2025 Shanghai International Flower Show officially opened on April 18th. The total exhibition area of this year's flower show reaches 390 hectares. Through the model of "2 main venues +5 sub-venues +15 city-themed nodes", it will bring citizens and tourists a city-wide "flower carnival" spanning 24 days.

Twenty-seven groups of gardens made a stunning debut, showcasing "City and Nature".

Through the "Integration of city and park, city-wide Flower exhibition" model, this year's flower exhibition is like a three-dimensional network of "branches and leaves" connecting the entire city of Shanghai, creating an immersive experience unique to spring.

Shanghai Botanical Garden serves as the "industry main venue" for this year's flower exhibition, while Huangpu New World acts as the "urban main venue", respectively showcasing the technological core and urban genes of the flower exhibition. At the same time, five sub-venues, namely "Flower Gathering in Xuhui" (Xuhui District), "Flower Gathering in Qiantanli" (Pudong New Area), "Flower Blooming in South Shanghai" (Fengxian District), "Flower Youth City" (Lingang New Area), and "Romantic Riverside" (Shanghai Riverside Forest Park), as well as 15 city-themed nodes, will be set up.

Among the eight exhibition sections of this year's flower show, "World Garden", "Theme Garden" and "Dream-Building Garden" are particularly anticipated. The 27 garden scenic spots express biodiversity through garden art, bringing people, the city and nature closer together.

The World Garden section located in the Taipingqiao Green Area of Huangpu New World invited five foreign designers to create five groups of gardens. Through the examination and reflection on topics such as the return of nature to the city, the integration of ecology and life, and the protection of urban biodiversity, attractive, readable and immersive green, low-carbon and sustainable gardens were created. For example, the Fibonacci three-dimensional garden designed by a Singaporean designer is very interesting. The design inspiration comes from the Fibonacci sequence (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13...). The beauty displayed in nature is a perfect blend of mathematics and aesthetics.

Fibonacci Three-dimensional Garden (Renderings)

The theme garden sections are distributed in the Taiping Bridge Green area of Huangpu New World, Sinan Mansion and the Bund. They consist of the "Healing Theme Garden" and the "Designer Theme Garden", inviting medical institutions and universities to participate in the design together. The Dream Building Garden section is located in the lawn space of the North District of Shanghai Botanical Garden. It showcases five award-winning works from the "Future Garden Designer Competition", presenting college students' thoughts on the construction of a people's city and a park city from the perspectives of a natural and clean place where humans and birds coexist, the charm of the alleyways of daily life, the rich and colorful memories of "eating time", and the natural sounds of insects chirping and the wind howling.

The chirping of insects returns to the inner garden

It showcases over 2,500 new and superior plant species, with 9 new varieties making their debut

This year, for the first time, the "theme flower" setting has been cancelled, and "a hundred flowers blooming" has replaced "a single flower standing out". The relevant person in charge of the flower show organizing committee said that as the Shanghai International Flower Show is transforming from an industry flower show to a city flower show, they hope to introduce more "unrestricted" new and superior varieties to the industry and citizens.

At the main venue of the Shanghai Botanical Garden, a total of over 2,500 new, superior and distinctive plant species will be on display. The "New and Superior Plants" and "Rare Plants" sections have invited 7 domestic and foreign botanical gardens and 11 well-known domestic and foreign flower breeding and production enterprises to showcase 150 rare plant species and 270 new and superior flower species.

Display of rare plants

Display of new and superior plant varieties

At the opening ceremony of the flower show, nine new varieties of domestic and foreign flowers were launched for the whole city, including the new rhododendron variety 'Yanzhi' with a 50% expansion in application area, the iris series' Sweet 'with a 30% reduction in maintenance costs, and the new lily variety' Orange Sunshine 'with fast growth rate and both ornamental and edible uses.

Rhododendron 'rouge'

Lily 'Orange Sunshine'

The sub-venue of Shanghai Binjiang Forest Park will showcase the characteristic varieties with strong stress tolerance and outstanding ornamental value cultivated by enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta, such as the Anku Rhododendron series, Western Rhododendron variety, Gaoyue Rhododendron variety, and Jinxiu Shaped Rhododendron variety, etc.

It is understood that during this flower exhibition, the Shanghai Greening Management Guidance Station will organize and hold a "Promotion Conference for New and Superior Flower Varieties in the Yangtze River Delta", inviting 13 well-known domestic and foreign flower breeding and production enterprises to bring 110 latest horticultural varieties and share the achievements of horticultural innovation.

Cross-border cooperation in culture, business and tourism builds a new industrial ecosystem

The flower exhibition is not only a feast of flowers, but also a deep integration of art with nature, culture and life.

This year's flower show breaks through the boundaries of viewing, actively explores cross-border cooperation with culture, business and tourism, and strives to build a new industrial ecosystem of "flower show + culture, business and tourism", such as the integration of horticultural landscapes and urban blocks, leading a new cultural trend. The main venue in Huangpu has collaborated with merchants in Xintiandi to create "window floral Art", setting up over ten photo spots filled with blooming flowers. It will also introduce limited-edition collaborative desserts and tea beverages. The "Dongtai Good Market · Flower Language Gathering" flower market will create an outdoor garden living space of over 2,000 square meters. Meanwhile, Huangpu District has also jointly launched the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street co-branded cultural and creative products with New World Group and the first "Sinan Natural Life Festival" with Sinan Mansion.

At several sub-venues, the Pudong New Area sub-venue collaborated with Qiantan Commercial to create activities such as the riverside limited-time Flower Road, Qiantan Flower Fair, Early Spring Intangible Cultural Heritage Life Festival, and Let's Bloom Well focusing on a good life. The Xuhui District sub-venue collaborated with art colleges across industries, using floral art to decorate outstanding historical buildings such as the Music Castle and the City Concert Living Room of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and held art activities such as concerts and music flash MOBS. The Lingang sub-venue launched the "Spring Artistic Journey", recreating the colors of famous paintings with floral patterns and integrating famous paintings, literature, music and nature.

This flower exhibition builds a sustainable development picture for the city from aspects such as innovative flower application, low-carbon and green cities, and future talent cultivation. In terms of innovation in flower application, the concept of "flower beds and flower beds" has been introduced, integrating the idea of natural flower beds into flower beds, making flower arrangements more diverse, the types more abundant, and the viewing time longer. Citizens can enjoy a variety of sustainable horticultural landscapes. For instance, the new Pudong sub-district venue has selected plant varieties from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai to create a new naturalistic flower corridor with strong resistance and easy maintenance, restoring the beauty of ecological meadows.

In terms of talent cultivation, the "College Students' Garden Festival" held at the Fengxian District sub-venue also attracted the participation of teachers and students from many institutions, becoming a practical project for students majoring in landscape architecture and horticulture.

It is understood that this year's flower exhibition will last until May 11th.