Walt Disney World Flower and Garden Festival 2014

Yesterday we went to Epcot to check out the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot.  The Festival started on March 5, 2014 and runs through May 18, 2014.  The event includes beautiful topiaries,  gardens and two fun play areas for the kids.  This year they also have kiosks with food and drinks similar to the Food and Wine Festival.

Here is a picture of the guide map

This will be a picture heavy post as there is not much to say about the beautiful sights throughout the park.  The topiaries start as soon as you enter the park

There were Photopass photographers at some of the topiaries.  The first one was the one below with Goofy and Donald playing soccer.  Disney does not miss out on details, each of the tri-color balls around the field have a different country name on it. 

Sorcerer Mickey is right before the lagoon along with Fantasia topiaries

At the food kiosks, there is a menu of the offerings along with a small garden of the plants featured in the items on the menu.

They also have this amazing sand sculpture celebrating the Disney movie Bears

A popular offering this year is at the American Pavilion at The Smokehouse.  It's the "Piggylicious" Bacon Cupcake.  The description reads "bacon cupcake with maple frosting and pretzel crunch featuring Nueske's Applewood smoked bacon. Rick and Keith were happy to try this out.  They both agreed it was very good with strong bacon flavor.  I had one bite and did not really care for it even though I normally like bacon. 

Another highlight of the event is Tinkerbell's Butterfly Garden.  Inside, not only will you find beautiful flowers and butterflies flying around but also these gorgeous glass flower sculptures. 

At the Buttercup Cottage by the UK, they had great offerings; freshly baked potato and cheddar cheese biscuit with smoked salmon tartare; field greens with plant city strawberries; pork and apple sausage roll, fresh baked lemon scones.  The field greens with strawberry was fresh and light and had a wonderful dressing. It was my favorite offering that we tried.

Lemon scones  and Biscuit with smoked salmon tartare

Peter Pan Topiaries

 

Mary Poppins and her tea gardens.  Epcot offers a 20 minute guided tour though this elegant English Tea Garden featuring some of Twinings finest tea blends.  You can sign up for the tour at the Tea Caddy.

Winnie the Pooh and friends

Princess Aurora

Princess Cinderella

Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs

The Lion King

Bambi

Woody

Lady and the Tramp

Mrs. Potts and Chip

Disney's Muppet's Most Wanted

The Festival Center is home to the Designer's Stage and Greenhouse Stage where experts and celebrity presenters from HGTV have scheduled presentations throughout the day during the festival.  You can find the complete schedule for the presentations here.  

The Flower Power Concert Series are held at the American Gardens Theatre on Fridays. Saturdays, and Sundays at 5:30pm, 6:45pm, and 8:00pm.  Acts include such artists as Paul Revere & The Radiers, Village People and Alan Parsons Live Project.  You can find the entire schedule here.

At night, the topiaries and gardens are illuminated  

We had a great time at Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival and are looking forward to visiting again.

Have you visited the Flower and Garden Festival?  What is your favorite part?