Oz the Flowerful: Our Disney Correspondent discovers 30 million blossoms at Epcot

Cinderella topiary.  Photo, Liliane Opsomer

The 20th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is set for March 6 through May 19, 2013. Throughout the 75-day celebration sponsored by HGTV, guests can enjoy topiaries and floral displays, seminars and celebrity presentations as well as Flower Power Concerts.

New this year is the Garden Marketplace offering culinary creations ranging from smokehouse barbecue and shrimp with grits and Zellwood corn to sweet "frushi" made with fresh fruits and coconut rice. Twelve food kiosks around the World Showcase will give the festival a bit of the Food & Wine Festival feel.

Larger-than-life Fab Five Disney character topiary with floral versions of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck are new this year and will greet guests as they enter Epcot. In the park’s Future World and World Showcase, illuminated gardens will twinkle and glow at night. An annual highlight is the Butterfly House. This year Tinker Bell and her fairy friends including Fawn, Vidia and Terrence take over the screened-in gazebo where they reign among hundreds of butterflies. 

At the Test Track Walkway kids will love the interactive "Radiator Springs" play area featuring floral renditions of Lightning McQueen and Mater.

The movie "Oz the Great and Powerful" is coming to a theater near you as of March 8^th and Disney celebrates the film’s release with The Land of Oz Garden. The children’s play zone with midway-style games in circus-themed tents as well as the "Oz Movie Garden" captures the spirit of the film. Oz’s crashed hot-air balloon is the perfect backdrop for great pictures.

The Oz garden opened on February 12 and I had the opportunity to meet with the man who orchestrates this annual feast for the eyes.

Festival horticultural manager Eric Darden and his team have done a splendid job. The playground is imaginative and the soft cushioned ground relieves the mind of parents worried that their little ones would get hurt. Talking about the parents: they too will enjoy taking a break and put their feet up in the Oz Garden. Comfortable seating areas are nestled around the playground and are covered with a tent roof for shelter from the sun.  I saw quite a few content moms and dads enjoying a glass of wine or a cool beer. Don’t forget to play the midway-style games. Kids and grownups alike are encouraged and rewarded with buttons from the movie and packets of marigold seeds.

Raised garden beds around the marketplaces will be growing some of the produce and herbs used in the dishes served at the kiosks around World Showcase. Each marketplace has three to four dishes, and while the kiosks are reminiscent of the Food & Wine Festival there are no repeats.

Eric Darden is excited about the addition of the food kiosks, a project 5 years in the making. He feels that it is a great opportunity to tell the story of the plants through the food. Look for crab tostadas with chipotle aioli and salsa in the Jardin de Fiestas in Mexico, a spring pancake with grilled chicken and green apple at the Lotus House in China and bread pudding with spring peas and wild mushroom ragout at the Bauernmarkt in Germany. Green asparagus and lobster with a garden cocktail sauce will be served at Primavera Kitchen in Italy while stir-fried veggies and soba noodles served in a bun are available from Hamai in Japan. At Taste of Marrakesh enjoy spiced lamb kebabs with couscous salad (look for the harissa plant in the herb garden) and go for a pig slider with coleslaw at The Smokehouse at American Adventure. A ratatouille tart with goat cheese is sure to delight at L’Orangerie in France and vegetarians will enjoy Heirloom tomatoes with house-made mozzarella, Minus 8 Vinegar and basil at The Cottage in the United Kingdom.

Eric Darden studied plant science and after an internship at The Land and working for seven years as a gardener he became the Horticultural Manager and this year marks his 10^th Flower & Garden Festival. Together with his wife, a horticultural major, he takes care of their home garden.  His favorite displays are the topiaries and the butterfly house. Over the years the topiaries became more and more sophisticated. He has fond memories of the rendition of the Lion King, which marked a milestone in the art of topiary creations.  Darden: "He just looked so real."

A third, annual garden, between France and Morocco gives parents ideas as to how to use and create a garden in their very own backyard. The Backyard garden is also a playground and Eric Darden loves the fact that year after year guests come and show pictures of their accomplishments.

Available all year round and fitting with the garden theme is the free Living with the Land 14-minute boat ride. Guests are taken past greenhouses where crops such as rice, sugar cane, peanuts, cacao, and bananas are grown under a 60-foot dome.  In the Aquacell area alligators, catfish, tilapia, sunshine bass and American eel are raised.

The Temperate Greenhouse features the concepts and technologies of sustainable agriculture, including intercropping, integrated pest management and specialized irrigation systems that reduce waste and increase crop production. In the Production Greenhouse tons of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and other vegetables are grown for use in The Land’s Garden Grill Restaurant and other Epcot restaurants. The Creative House, shows imaginative ways to grow crops without soil, hanging in the air or even on a space station. The Behind the Seeds Tour is a guided one-hour tour through The Land pavilion greenhouses. The tour costs $18 per person and guests get to release lady bugs, see gators up close, feed fish, sample a veggie or two all while learning about the growing techniques.

Chef Artur Bukalo at the Land Pavilion shared some facts about the usage of the produce grown at Epcot. Lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and herbs are used throughout The Land restaurants. The challenge lies with the sheer quantities needed daily to satisfy hungry guests. To put this into perspective, the Coral Reef restaurant has an average of 1,600 covers per day.  Most of the Tilapia and Catfish farmed at The Land goes to the Flying Fish restaurant and the herbs and edible flowers for the Food & Wine Festival are all produced on site. Seasonal items such as Swiss Chard, Squash and Brussels Sprouts go to the Yacht & Beach Club restaurants. Chef Bukalo is particularly pleased that Disney is embracing the Farm to Table movement and that the entertainment giant is paying close attention to sustainability and nutrition.

Disney chefs were asked to chose some fun dishes to encourage youngsters to try something new as part of Disney’s TRYit campaign. The program encourages healthy living and helps parents to make nutritional eating and physical activities more appealing and fun. Look for the TRYit logo on dishes all throughout the World Showcase Promenade. For more information check out this dedicated website. http://disney.go.com/magic-of-healthy-living/index.html#sthash.qdfCM8iw.dpuf

Chef Bukalo, a German native, loves his profession. He started cooking at the age of 12 when his uncle bought him his first chef’s uniform. He worked in France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Bermuda before being recruited by Disney. His culinary expertise was put to work at the Contemporary Resort, the German Pavilion, the Coral Reef restaurant and Epcot catering. He is currently chef of The Land restaurants.  On property he enjoys dining at the California Grill and Citricos. Through his travels he keeps himself up-to-date on gastronomic innovations both in Europe and here in the United States. When I asked him about the addition of food kiosks to the Flower & Garden Festival his answer said it all "It’s a perfect match."

Flower Power Facts:

30 million blooms, more than 500,000 plants, trees and shrubs are planted for the festival; 250,000 of those are annual blossoms installed for the festival. 700 container gardens of flowers, herbs, plants and vegetables in clay pots, barrels and urns enhance the landscape throughout Epcot. 400 Walt Disney World horticulturists are needed to install the festival landscape, topiaries and many exhibits; 100 Epcot horticulturists maintain topiaries and other festival displays. It takes more than one full year and about 24,000 cast member hours to prepare for the annual festival.

Where to stay:

If you want a seamless transition I recommend the Disney Polynesian Resort. The tropical lobby of the hotel comes with over 75 different plants and waterfalls.  The Village Longhouses are set among lush vegetation and while kids will enjoy the main pool, which boosts a waterslide and volcano, grown-ups can retreat to the East Pool, tucked amid the gardens. The resort is connected to Epcot by the Monorail, which makes commuting a breeze. Standard room rates start at $475 a night.

by Liliane Opsomer, TravelMole Disney correspondent

Liliane Opsomer is the co-author of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids 2013