The whisper of the wind, the buds on the branches, blue skies and crystal-clear waters: spring in Ascona-Locarno is an explosion of colours, fragrances and emotions. Nowhere more so than in the region’s parks and gardens.
This climate – where the absence of long periods of frost and the acidity of the ground favour the flourishing of the region’s unique flora – is ideal for one of the richest camellia parks in the world, opened on the occasion of the World Camellia Congress held in Locarno in 2005.
It was a prestigious opening for what has become an international attraction and a benchmark in the field of botanics for its landscape value, so much so that in 2010 it became part of the prestigious circle of the International Camellia Society’s Gardens of Excellence. At the time of its opening, the park was home to approximately 500 camellias that – thanks to the relationships forged at the congress and the exchanging of unusual varieties with growers from Italy, Germany, Belgium, USA and China – have now become almost 1,000!
The Ascona-Locarno region boasts an impressive number of parks and gardens that, thanks to the special climate of Lake Maggiore, put on a high-quality botanical spectacle. In spring, the region is tinged with a thousand colours brought even more to life by the reflection of the sun on the water, and the towns are set off by a floral frame that gets them ready for summer. The lakeside gardens in Locarno and the Monte Verità park in Ascona, to name only a few of the region’s many options, become a spectacle that can’t help but catch the eye.
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