Everland's gardens bloom with flowers and visitors this spring

Food & Travel

Published: 23 Apr. 2024, 15:08

Everland's gardens bloom with flowers and visitors this spring

Everland’s Four Seasons Garden attracts visitors with Sanrio characters this spring. [SAMSUNG C&T]

Though its much-loved giant panda Fu Bao is no longer there to greet visitors, Everland, an amusement park and zoo in Yongin, Gyeonggi, announced last week that its “beautiful flowers at the flower gardens have fully bloomed, just in time to welcome families and couples for a spring outing.”

According to Bae Teck-yung, vice president of Samsung C&T and head of its Park Operations Team, Everland has been working hard to make its gardens more appealing to visitors by developing diverse programs, aiming to prove that Everland has much more to offer than just fun rides and giant pandas.

Inside Everland, there are five gardens. The Four Seasons Garden is the smallest, taking up 10,000 square meters (107,600 square feet) of the theme park. But it has always been the busiest, as it's the venue for Everland's signature fireworks and laser shows that change the themes every season. This spring, Everland teamed up with Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company behind the 50-year-old Hello Kitty brand, to decorate the garden.

Everland’s Four Seasons Garden attracts visitors with Sanrio characters this spring. [SAMSUNG C&T]

Everland said visitors will especially enjoy taking photographs in and around this garden, as it has just completed a grand renewal, the second since the garden's opening in 1976.

Popular Sanrio characters, ranging from the cute, white and chubby puppy named Cinnamoroll to the white, rabbit-like creature called Kuromi, are on display as giant figures among the sea of tulips and daffodils at the Four Seasons Garden.

Everland said the garden is already very crowded with families and young boys and girls lining up to take pictures with the Sanrio characters. On March 22, Everland kicked off the tulip festival "Fairy Town with Sanrio Characters,” and visitors will be able to enjoy some 1.2 million tulips in 100 different varieties.

On the garden's large LED screen, a video of Sanrio's characters having fun in the garden plays on a loop. On weekends, My Melody and Kuromi will also make live appearances in the garden to take pictures with visitors, Everland said. The tulip festival runs until June 16.

Everland’s Rose Festival kicks off on May 17 at its Rose Garden that boasts some 3 million roses from 720 different varieties. [SAMSUNG C&T]

The second most popular garden is Everland's Rose Garden. According to Everland, this rose garden, established in 1976, is where Korea's first flower festival took place in 1985. The garden measures 20,000 square meters. From May 17, Everland's Rose Festival will kick off at the garden, which boasts some 3 million roses from 720 different varieties.

The Rose Garden gained international fame after winning the Award of Garden Excellence at the 19th World Rose Convention held in Adelaide, Australia, in 2022. One type of rose that helped the garden win the award was the Everose, a rose species developed by Everland. It's the first time a species developed in Korea has won the award. There are now 24 different varieties of Everose, and they can be enjoyed at the Rose Garden's Victoria Garden section. The main Rose Garden is divided into four smaller gardens: Victoria, Venus, Maze and Cupid. The Venus Garden is the main attraction, exhibiting excellent rose varieties that have won awards at the World Rose Convention. At the Maze Garden section, visitors can walk through a maze while enjoying different scents. At the Cupid Garden section, only pink and red roses welcome the visiting rose enthusiasts.

The Music Garden inside Everland [SAMSUNG C&T]

Everland's Music Garden was established in 2016 and is located in the center of the theme park. Everland said it established the garden after learning about the sonic bloom effect, which is a technique that helps improve plant growth. At the garden, music plays at a special frequency to help the trees, plants and flowers grow better. The music includes some classical pieces as well as tunes composed by Everland especially for the garden. Visitors can stroll along the 370-meter (1,200 foot) trail while listening to the music.

This section has dozens of old trees that are not commonly seen, including a 160-year-old zelkova tree, named Harmony Tree, and a 110-year-old Cornelian cherry flower tree and an 80-year-old Japanese hackberry.

Visitors take selfies among a sea of flowers at the Sky Garden Trail. [SAMSUNG C&T]

The most recently established garden inside Everland is the Sky Garden Trail. This garden, which covers 30,000 square meters, is filled with plum trees. Since habitats for plum trees in Korea are mostly located in southern areas, Everland's Sky Garden Trail has been attracting flower enthusiasts every spring. The trail, which stretches about 1 kilometer, allows visitors to enjoy over 700 plum trees.

Visitors can participate in meditation classes inside the Forest Dome located at the Forest Camp. [SAMSUNG C&T]

The Forest Camp is for those who want to do yoga or meditate. On this vast area of 90,000 square meters, Everland installed a transparent dome so that visitors can participate in different programs, such as yoga and meditation. For those who want to work out a little more, this location serves as the starting point for one of the trekking courses in the area.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]