Where ever you're going to travel in Germany this year, the probability of there being some magnificent gardens on show is very high. All over the country, regional garden shows are more than just displays of flowers and plants. Their aim is to promote quality of life and the ecological climate of the towns and cities where they take place.

This year's Rhineland-Palatinate State Garden Show in Bingen (18 April to 19 October) is set up on 24 hectares and over a length of 2.7 kilometres on former harbour and railway premises, creating a future-oriented working, living and leisure area. There are further regional garden shows, for instance, in the Baden-Württemberg town of Bad Rappenau (25 April to 5 October) and Neu-Ulm in Bavaria (25 April to 5 October). Further north the first Schleswig-Holstein Regional Garden Festival will be held in the city of Schleswig this year (25 April to 5 October) where visitors can discover a unique park landscape spread out over 16 hectares on the Schlei, the only Baltic Sea fjord in Germany.

Apart from these locally-organised unique garden festivals, there are other popular garden events, such as the annual festival and palace garden concerts in Schwetzingen (25 April to 10 June), which are being held since 1955, the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen Festival Weeks (18 May to 6 July) or the splendid Baroque Gardens annual events between April and October in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart.