“The Joy of Exploring Gardens” by Lonely Planet: A New Travel Guide for Garden Lovers

April – Koko Krater Botanical Garden, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

While eastern O’ahu is best known for snorkelling and bodysurfing, ‘it’s walking the 2.3. mile (3.7km) loop trail inside Koko Crater that will appeal to plant lovers.  Here you’ll find tropical colours, intense fragrances and bizarre shapes that invade and intrigue the senses, from yellow and pink plumeria to bat-pollinated African sausage trees and sprawling octopus cacti. While the gardens are lovely year-round, plumerias bloom from April to September.  More here.

May – Spirited Garden, Jeju, Korea

As you enter the Spirited Garden, it’s as if you’ve passed through a portal into a fantasy botanical world. You’ll feel delight and wonder as you stand on the bridge gazing down onto the pond teeming with golden car, Basalt stone pathways lead you through a landscape of pines, palms, lawns, meditative areas and waterfalls. And all around, displayed in pots are artfully contorted miniature trees and shrubs: bunjae, the Korean style of bonsai.  In May, wisteria blooms are at their finest. More here.

June – Arctic–Alpine Botanic Garden, Tromso, Norway

The Arctic Circle is not an easy place to be a plant. Except in Tromso’s Botanical Garden, that is.  Located 217 miles (350km) above the Arctic Circle at 69.694°N, this northern oasis exists at a latitude that would have most sensible plants shrivelling in their roots. It’s 714 miles (1149 km) north of Oslo, and cloaked in snow most of the year – and yet the garden offers a profusion of floral colour more reminiscent of a midsummer day.  The experience is as awe-inspiring as it is bewildering. Don’t miss seeking the super-rare Himalayan blue poppy. More here.