Let’s Grow Wild Together

By CFA Co-President, Colby Erickson Freer 

Photos By Joel Ortiz

https://www.coronadoflowershow.com/

A Welcome from the Coronado Floral

Association Full Bloom Board 

Every spring, something quietly extraordinary happens in Spreckels Park. The white tents go up, the volunteers, designers, and artists arrive before dawn, and Coronado does what it has done since 1922: it gathers around something beautiful. The show has brought neighbors together since that very first year, when local photographer and horticulture enthusiast Harold Taylor imagined a gathering that would celebrate both gardens and community pride. More than a hundred years later, that spirit is very much intact. This year, the gathering gets a little untamed. The theme is Welcome to the Jungle, and the Coronado Floral Association is leaning in fully. Think lush. Think layered. Think color that doesn't ask permission. Whether you are a longtime local who knows where to find the best rose entries or a first-time visitor who just wants a lovely weekend on the island, the Flower Show weekend has more to offer than ever. Here is a look at everything in bloom.

Friday Evening  |  Movie Night Under the Stars

Spreckels Park  |  Ticketed

The weekend begins on Friday evening with a jungle-themed outdoor movie in the park. It is a natural gathering point for families dropping off entries for Saturday morning judging, and honestly a lovely excuse for everyone else to show up too. Grab a blanket, find your spot on the grass, and let the theme sink in before the show even opens. And for a little adulting, the beer and wine garden is open with cold island brews and a glass of something good. It is the kind of low-key Friday night that sets the whole weekend in motion.

Saturday & Sunday  |  The Flower Show

Within the Tents at Spreckels Park  |  Saturday 1–5 pm, Sunday 10 am–4 pm  |  $10 General Admission, Members Free

Step inside and the show opens up in every direction. The Coronado Flower Show is a genuine competition, judged to national standards, and that gives it a depth that a casual walk-through only begins to reveal. But you do not need to know the difference between a floribunda and a hybrid tea to appreciate what is happening here.

The horticulture division is where volunteers and designers bring the things they have actually grown and created: roses tended through the winter, orchids in full bloom, bonsai shaped over years, succulents arranged in dish gardens that have been quietly growing together for months. There is a care to all of it that you can feel. The design division is its own world entirely. Floral designers claim their spaces and build arrangements that interpret this year's jungle theme in ways ranging from architectural to frankly whimsical. Table designs are staged as if for a dinner worthy of a king of the jungle. Picture boxes frame botanical compositions in lighted niches. The floral photography division brings the outdoors inside through beautifully matted prints, and visitors vote on their favorites all weekend long.

Youth entries run throughout both days as well, with children from Pre-K through eighth grade bringing arrangements, plants they have grown from seed, and the perennial crowd-pleaser of the show: the Zoo's Whos, where kids sculpt animals entirely out of fresh fruits and vegetables. The results are, without exception, wonderful.

Wander through at your own pace. There is live music at the bandstand, local food and a beer and wine garden with craft brews, artisan vendors, and enough to look at that two hours can go by without noticing. On Sunday at 3pm, the award ceremony takes place at the bandstand, which is a genuinely sweet moment if you happen to catch it.

Events in the Tents  |  New This Year

Within the Tents  |  Friday Evening Through Sunday

This year the show introduces something it has not had before: a dedicated space within the tents for the community to gather around more than just the exhibits. Events in the Tents is a full weekend of programming woven into the show itself, and it begins Friday evening with candlelight. Come as you are. The flowers are already waiting, the light is soft, and this is your first real breath of the weekend. It is a gentle, personal welcome into something that is about to be beautiful. Throughout both show days, the space fills with hands-on demonstrations, talks, and community voices that add texture and warmth to the weekend. The tents hold a great deal more this year than they ever have before. And on Sunday morning, before the crowds arrive and the day finds its rhythm, there is Rise and Bloom — A quiet gathering when the flowers are still fresh and the park at its most peaceful. It is the kind of morning moment that stays with you. Members receive first access to limited seating sign-ups, and some events carry a ticketed cost, so keep an eye on the website as programming is released.

Stephanie Clegg of the Monarch Soul

The Jungle goes velvet after dark.

Saturday Evening  |  The Velvet Jungle

Within the Tents at Spreckels Park  |  21+

Formally known as the 1922 Club and the Spring Fling, the 1922 Celebration has evolved into something a little more electric. The Velvet Jungle takes over the tents on Saturday evening, and this year's jungle theme calls for the animals of the night to come out and play. There is something genuinely magical about dancing and celebrating in the park after dark, the same tents that spent the day full of sunlight and blooms now holding elevated vibes, live music, and a whole lot of joy. You’ll be able to hear the champagne popping for blocks.

It is the only event of its kind in this town. Members of the Coronado Floral Association receive early access when tickets become available, which is one of the sweeter perks of belonging to this community.

The Week Before and All Weekend  | Beyond the Tents

Orange Avenue and Throughout Coronado

Beyond the Tents does not wait for the show to open. Beginning the week before, local shops, restaurants, and businesses along Orange Avenue and across the island start participating with their own floral displays, limited seasonal creations, and special offerings that carry the spirit of the season into everyday life on the island. By the time the tents go up in Spreckels Park, Coronado is already in bloom.

The hope, and it grows a little more each year, is that petals keep spilling further down the avenue. More windows dressed. More arrangements on counters. More of that particular feeling that the whole town is in on something together. With the jungle theme giving every local establishment something vivid and playful to interpret, this is shaping up to be the most lush Beyond the Tents yet. Wander and see what the neighborhood has done with it.

Home Front Judging  |  Best in Village Self-Guided Tour and Best Home Celebration

Citywide  |  Saturday at 11 am  |  Free and Open to All

Blue ribbons start appearing on doors and garden gates around Coronado in the weeks after judging, a quiet signal that someone's front yard brought its best this season. Home Front Judging recognizes the home gardens that have been tended with genuine care, and it turns the whole island into an extension of the show.

Download the Geo app and follow the Best in Village self-guided tour through the top gardens of the year. Wander at your own pace, and make your way to the Best Home Celebration on Saturday at 11 am, where music plays and the top garden of the year gets the proper moment it deserves. Free, open to everyone, and one of the most charming hours of the entire weekend.

Be Part of It

The Coronado Flower Show exists because people show up for it. Volunteers, committee leads, division chairs, setup crews, front gate greeters, and everyone in between. Each of them holds a piece of something that has been growing in this community for over a hundred years, and that only continues because new hands keep joining in.

If you have ever watched this weekend unfold and thought about being on the other side of it, this is your invitation. There is a role for every kind of person here, and the reward is getting to be part of something that genuinely matters to this town. Visit coronadoflowershow.com to learn more about how to get involved. 

The show is made possible by hundreds of volunteers and a community that has shown up for over a century. It keeps getting better because more people keep joining in.

The Coronado Floral Association has seen its membership grow steadily in recent years, and it is easy to understand why. Being a member means free admission through the members' entrance, early access to events like the Velvet Jungle, and a seat at the table of something that has been meaningful to this island for more than a hundred years. It also means being part of a community that is genuinely expanding: new faces, new ideas, new reasons to come back each spring, and being in the know on the year-round programming that keeps this community blooming well beyond the show weekend.

The 104th Annual Coronado Flower Show is April 18 and 19, 2026, at Spreckels Park, 601 Orange Avenue, Coronado. General admission is $10. Children 17 and under and all CFA members are free. The weekend begins Friday evening and runs through Sunday afternoon.

Find the full schedule, membership information, and event details at coronadoflowershow.com. Follow along at @coronadoflowershow.