Lotus Flower Season

The Lotus Flower Season, held by the Blue Water Lotus Garden, lasts a few months. During this time, visitors can see beautiful lotus flowers in full bloom.

The next season runs from December 2024 to March 2025. It features thousands of Lotus and Water Lily flowers over 14 acres of ponds and ornamental lakes.

During the Lotus Flower Season, visitors will experience the world’s most extensive collection of lotus flower varieties, producing millions of huge flowers spread over 14 acres of water gardens. Highlights include Lotus Lake and Lotus Wetlands, which have thousands of blooms daily, creating a virtual sea of flowers in every direction. A special feature is the Giant Amazon Waterlilies exhibit.

Visitors will love exploring the tropical-themed gardens, which feature an amazing array of exotic plants, garden exhibits, fountains, waterfalls, floral sculptures, walks, and scenic vistas.

Extensive picnic facilities, including numerous shelters and BBQs, are spread throughout the gardens. Alternatively, garden visitors can enjoy the wonderful hospitality of the cafe, which offers fantastic views of the flowers.

Cochrane Lake

This is the largest lake in the garden, holding over 11 million litres of water. It stretches 250m long and contains over 70 varieties of waterlily flowers, creating a carpet of colour across the lake’s surface. The display features our prized collection of Claude Monet’s original waterlilies, which he planted in his garden at Giverny in France.

At the end of the lake, a plantation of hundreds of Mrs Perry Slocum Lotus, Hindu Lotus and Cream Lutea Lotus add to the visual experience, producing thousands of blooms every day. The gardens surrounding the lake also contain many perennial flowers and shade-giving bananas and cocos palms.

The lake also features a 225m walk through its middle, with 11 bridges, including the famous red arched bridge. Often, native water birds such as Giant Egrets, Water Hens, Spoon Bills and numerous ducks are seen foraging for food or building nests.

Lotus Lake

Can you imagine being in a place so beautiful that you never want to leave? The walk around Lotus Lake is one of those places. The lake produces the largest display of lotus flowers in the garden, with over 10,000 blooms on display. The featured flowers are Carolina Queen Lotus (pink) and Cream Lutea Lotus (white), with blossoms as large as a dinner plate.

The gardens edging the pathway have all been carefully created and planted with exotic flowering plants, adding to the wonderful vistas. Featured flowering plants include a range of salvias, impatiens, succulents, cordylines, begonias, canna lilies, crepe myrtles and pagoda vines. Banana palms and cocos palms provide shade as you wander, along with numerous reed-covered rotundas offering great vantage points to take in the serenity.

A special feature of the walk is the rare Golden Lotus. This spectacular double-yellow flower has more petals than any other lotus in the garden.

Giant Amazon Waterlilies

The natural world contains many rare, beautiful and amazing plants, including the giant waterlilies that originate from the Amazon basin.

At the gardens, they grow the Victoria Cruziana waterlily, which is slightly smaller than its cousin, the Victoria Amazonica, made famous by David Attenborough in his series “Secret Life of Plants”.

The Victoria Cruziana is native to the subtropical regions of South America and grows in a slightly cooler habitat than its cousin. It produces very large lily pads that reach 1.4 – 1.8 metres in diameter. They are so big they can hold the weight of a child or small adult. The leaves (lily pads) feature a smooth green top with high sides. However, the underside of leaves and stalks are covered in large razor-sharp spines that can seriously injure a human!

Lotus Wetlands

Created along the loamy river flats, the wetlands contain numerous bogs and shallow ponds containing a large variety of water & bog plants. Five of our favourite varieties of lotus flowers are featured here including Mrs Perry Slocum, Carolina Queen, Hindu, Roseam Plena, Green Magic and Crème Lutea. Because the ponds are shallow, the lotus flowers grow to a height of 1.5m, creating a virtual forest of flowers. It’s the best place in the garden for visitors to get very close to the flowers and their perfume.

The waterlily walk features the “Indian Blue Lotus” (which is actually a tropical waterlily), along with numerous other beautiful waterlilies. The ponds and bogs are edged with extensive garden beds full of perennial colours, including impatiens, salvias and begonias. Other plants include canna lilies, petunias, celosias, hibiscus, thalis and papyrus.

The wetlands also provide critical habitats for many birds, frogs, insects, and invertebrate life that live in the rich ponds. Many of our native animals rely on this created habitat, especially when food is scarce in the natural environment.

Tropical World

The Tropical World exhibit is a collection of four greenhouses full of amazing tropical plants from Australia and worldwide.

Highlights include Kakadu Lagoon, which features native Australian waterlilies and lotus from far north Queensland. An amazing collection of Australian-bred Winch waterlily flowers with their many different colours.

The Tropical House and the Prickly Waterlily – Euryale Ferox (Giant Asian Waterlily). Our Giant Amazon Waterlily exhibit. Along with many other beautiful and rare vines and plants sourced from the tropics.

Dragons Trail

Take the kids on an adventure to meet our mystical Red Dragons. The journey will take you along a trail as it snakes its way through fields of white lotus flowers in summer and autumn flowers later in the year.

Above a waterfall at the end of the trail, you will find our Red Dragons, who protect the garden’s waterways.

It’s believed that if you through a coin into the Dragons pond it will bring you good luck for the rest of the year.

Kids Play Spaces

For the kids, the flower fairies have been busy building their own village with giant mushrooms and garden beds full of flowers, fantasy cubby houses, a rainbow slide, flower boats, wishing well, and the magical fairy throne.

They also have new play spaces, including Todd Tree House, Giant Frog Garden and Giant Chess. Kids of all ages will love the Dragons Trail and our Garden Spotto activity.

Lara and her team offer face painting on weekends and public holidays for a small fee. They also hold special events for children.

Facilities

Inside the gardens is a host of great facilities provided exclusively for garden visitors. Whether it’s a family picnic, bite at the cafe or group outing, we have you covered. Also offered are play spaces for the kids, dozens of picnic shelters & bbqs, accessible amenities & parking, group pavilions, parent changing facilities and more.

Dining Options

The Blue Lotus Water Garden is pleased to announce local culinary experts at 3 Sugars Cafe from Warburton have come on board to run the garden’s hospitality services, cafe and kiosk. The team at 3 Sugars offers customers a great range of dine-in and takeaway options focusing on house-made delicious food, excellent coffee and friendly hospitality.

At the Blue Lotus Water Garden, their seasonal open-air cafe is a collection of “Balinese” style shelters set amongst lush tropical gardens with stunning views of the water flowers. The comfortable space is a great place to sit back and enjoy a meal, snack or drink while admiring the views.

Also located in the garden is their Ice Cream Kiosk, which is open on weekends and public holidays. It offers scooped ice cream, cold drinks and snacks.

Picnic Facilities

The gardens contain numerous picnic facilities, including two large picnic pavilions for larger groups and dozens of picnic shelters perfect for families. They have seven large general-use park BBQs (coin-operated) that visitors can use, and they are located in different spots around the gardens.

Plant Nursery

The seasonal plant nursery offers Victoria’s largest range of potted lotus plants and waterlilies suitable for backyard pots, bowls, ponds, dams and lakes. They also stock a range of other ornamental plants that are perfect for adding extra texture and colour to any garden.

Beautiful bunches of freshly cut lotus flowers, waterlily flowers and lotus pods are available daily from 26th Dec – late March until sold out. Customers who wish to purchase more than 20 flowers at a time. You must pre-order 24 hours in advance and collect your order from the plant nursery (they don’t offer a delivery service).

Time To Get Around

The gardens are over 14 acres in size, with more than 3km of pathways and numerous plant-based attractions to see. We suggest you allow 1-2 hours to explore the gardens, nursery and retail areas, longer if you plan to have lunch at the café or use the picnic/BBQ facilities. Some people stay for only 1 hour; some visitors stay all day. The best time to see the lotus & waterlily flowers is January to mid-March. The best time to visit the Giant Amazon Waterlilies and perennial flowers is February – April.

Car Parking

We have free on-site parking for cars and buses. People with limited mobility are advised to park in our main car park in the designated spots. Please note that parking is limited and based on a first-come, first-served system. If the car park is full, we advise you to take a drive, explore the local area, and come back in an hour or so. We will reopen the car park as soon as space becomes available.

Getting Here

By Car
They are located at 2628 Warburton Highway, Yarra Junction in the Yarra Valley. Travel time is approximately 1.5 hours by car from Melbourne CBD and only 25 minutes from Lilydale.
The entrance to the garden is located on the right-hand side of the Warburton Highway, approximately 1km east of the township of Yarra Junction. Large PINK signs are displayed out front on each side of the driveway entrance.

Public Transport
Catch the train to Lilydale Station and then Bus Service (route 683) to the intersection of Warburton Highway and Riversdale Rd, Yarra Junction (also known as Upper Yarra Secondary College bus stop). The gardens’ entrance is about 300m (5 min) east along the highway from the bus stop.

Please note that dogs (except service dogs) are not permitted within the Water Gardens. So come check out the lotus flowers at the best time of year by visiting the Blue Lotus Water Garden in the beautiful Yarra Valley.