Dallas Blooms, the largest annual floral festival in the Southwest, kicks off today, Feb. 29, and lasts through April 12. The festival, at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, features more than 500,000 spring blossoms, including thousands of azaleas and hundreds of Japanese cherry trees. This year, the festival displays six musically themed topiaries, including a piano, harp, guitar, saxophone, bass and violin.

“Dallas Blooms marks that spring has arrived in the South! We invite the community to experience one of the country’s most colorful floral displays this spring where more than 250,000 people will visit this season,” said Alan Walne, board chairman, Dallas Arboretum.

Each week during the festival, the arboretum will feature live music and themed activities for both adults and children. The arboretum’s children’s garden is also reopened for spring, with its four plant labs, 17 galleries and 150 interactive games.

“There is something for everyone at Dallas Blooms, and we’ve been told we have the largest display of tulips in a public garden outside of Holland. As the tulips bloom throughout the festival, the finale is the mass flowering of the garden’s collection of 3,000 azaleas that bloom along with the Japanese cherry trees, ushering in spring with vibrant color everywhere,” said Mary Brinegar, president and CEO, Dallas Arboretum.