Wild Blooms 2026

The greatest flower show on Earth doesn’t happen in a garden

Every spring, after the winter rains, the country around Perth does something quietly extraordinary. More than 12,000 species of wildflower come into bloom across Western Australia, and most of them grow nowhere else on Earth. Botanists fly across the world to see it happen, and half of Perth drives past it on the way to the shops.

The truth about wildflowers is that they don’t keep appointments. An orchid can appear overnight and be gone within a fortnight, and a bank that was bare last Sunday might be crowded with colour by the next. No two springs are ever quite the same, which is half the magic and all of the challenge.

That’s where our guides come in. As a company, we have spent years getting to know these trails: the damp banks where the sundews set their traps, the spots where the spider orchids came up last season, the difference between a weed and a flower that grows in one corner of one continent. Walking with them turns a stroll into a treasure hunt. They’ll point out what you’d never have noticed on your own, and by the end of the morning you’ll be finding things yourself, which makes a better souvenir than any photograph.

You won’t see everything. Nobody ever does, and that’s rather the point. But you’ll come home having seen more in one morning than most people notice in a lifetime of walking past.

THE SEASON, IN FIVE WALKS

The season begins in the hills while the mornings are still cold, and meanders among the everlastings of Kings Park to the edges of Kitty’s Gorge for the long bloom. We’ve shaped five very different walks to carry you through it, each running on two Sundays. Start anywhere you like, or gather the whole set.

• No. 01 First Bloom · Lesmurdie Falls · Sun 23 and 30 Aug
• No. 02 Slow Bloom · Mundaring Weir· Sun 6 and 13 Sep
• No. 03 Bloom Hunt · John Forrest · Sun 20 and 27 Sep
• No. 04 Full Bloom · Kings Park · Sun 4 and 11 Oct
• No. 05 The Long Bloom · Kitty’s Gorge · Sun 18 and 25 Oct

WALK CARDS

No. 01 · First Bloom

Lesmurdie Falls · Sun 23 Aug and Sun 30 Aug

There’s a particular pleasure in being early. In late August the falls are still thundering with winter rain, the wattle has turned the hillsides gold, and the very first orchids of the season are just beginning to push up through the cold ground. This is the walk for the impatient and the curious, the ones who’d rather be out finding spring while everyone else is still waiting for it to be announced.

Details: 2  hours · Small group · Beginner friendly

No. 02 · Slow Bloom

Mundaring Weir · Sun 6 Sep and Sun 13 Sep

Slow Bloom is the quiet one. We wander through the jarrah forest near the weir while your guide points out the blooms coming up through the leaf litter, and then at our secret lookout, everybody sits down. You’ll be handed a small sketchbook and a pencil, and for a while nobody says anything at all. There’s no instruction and no standard to meet; you draw whatever’s in front of you, badly or beautifully, and discover that 20 minutes spent drawing a flower teaches you more about it than an hour spent photographing one. The sketchbook goes home with you.

Details: 3 hours · Small group · Beginner friendly

No. 03 · Bloom Hunt

John Forrest · Sun 20 Sep and Sun 27 Sep

Some of the strangest flowers on Earth grow in John Forrest, including orchids that survive by imitating female wasps so convincingly that the males carry their pollen for free. Flowers like these don’t want to be found, which is exactly what makes finding them so satisfying. Expect a morning of heads down and eyes sharp, with somebody calling out from up the trail every time they strike gold. It’s a treasure hunt in the oldest sense, and everyone goes home richer.

Details: 3 hours · Small group · Beginner friendly

No. 04 · Full Bloom

Kings Park · Sun 4 Oct and Sun 11 Oct

In early October spring is at its most generous, and there’s no easier place to meet it than Kings Park: fields of everlastings, banksias in full character, four hundred hectares of bushland sitting fifteen minutes from the middle of the city. It’s the gentlest walk of the five, which makes it the one to share. Bring your mum, bring your visitors, bring the friend who swears walking isn’t their thing. They’ll thank you for it.

Details: 2 hours · Small group · Beginner friendly

No. 05 · The Long Bloom

Kitty’s Gorge · Sun 18 Oct and Sun 25 Oct

Kitty’s Gorge is the longest and loveliest walk of the five, following the water through woodland while the season plays out its final weeks around you. More trail means more to find, and this is the group that tends to come home with the longest list. If a two-hour taste was never going to be enough for you, this is your walk: half a day deep inside the season, with time to linger over everything you discover. There’s something fitting about spring ending here, on the year’s longest trail, holding on for as long as it will let you.

Details: 5 hours · Small group · Advanced

WHY WALK IT WITH US

Every one of these trails is free to walk, any day you like, and plenty of people do. A guide doesn’t change the trail; they change what it turns out to contain. That clump you’d have stepped over is a colony of orchids. That scruffy-looking shrub grows in one corner of one continent and nowhere else on Earth. Somewhere in the second hour, someone will be lying flat on the ground photographing a flower smaller than a five-cent piece, and everybody will understand completely.

You don’t need experience, fitness or the faintest idea what a sundew is. Curiosity covers everything, and our guides handle the rest.

GOOD TO KNOW

What to bring: Sturdy shoes, water, a hat and something to take photos with. We’ll bring the guide, the route and the stories.

Fitness: If you can spend a couple of hours on your feet with plenty of stops, you’ll be fine. Full Bloom at Kings Park is the gentlest of the five and Long Bloom the most advanced at 5 hours and 16km.

Kids: Welcome on all but the Long bloom, and usually the best spotters in the group, which the adults find mildly annoying.

Weather: Spring in Perth does what it likes. We walk in light rain, which honestly suits the flowers, and if the weather turns properly rough we’ll simply move your booking to another date.