The fair runs from September 5 through October 9 at Gunma Flower Park + in Maebashi, on the southern slope of Mount Akagi. More than 100,000 cosmos plants appear across the grounds, while the main flower garden introduces the Cosmos Autumn Bouquet Garden, made from about 20,000 plants. Alongside cosmos are zinnias, celosia, and large African marigolds, giving one season a range of heights and flower forms.
The number of flowers is not the garden's only point. Its areas follow four concept colors—blue, orange, yellow, and red—so that moving through them leaves the composition of a bouquet in the visitor's mind. Color is chosen with the feet before any stem is cut. The garden includes not only the flower beds as one view, but also the time spent passing from one color to the next.
Wearing four colors in sequence
A visitor might move from blue to orange or start with red and return through yellow. A different sequence makes a different remembered bouquet. Cosmos spread fine petals, zinnias present planes of color, celosia stand upright, and marigolds gather into rounded volumes. Combining line, surface, height, and mass as well as color feels close to layering clothes and accessories.
The bouquet completed here is not an object to carry away. The official concept is a bouquet formed in the mind by walking through the four areas. It is worth first looking closely at one flower, then holding its afterimage before entering the next section. In a large flower field, the design becomes clearer when the eye follows how different flower forms share a color, rather than rushing to capture the entire view.
From looking at a garden to carrying flowers home
Cosmos picking is expected to begin in mid-September, depending on the condition of the flowers. Visitors can place the stems they pick in a dedicated bottle and take them home. The imagined bouquet assembled across the main garden will not be the same as the few flowers left in the hand. That difference invites a decision about how to carry the colors seen in the park into daily life. Because the start date depends on blooming conditions, check the park's latest notice before visiting.
When Gunma Flower Park + reopened in fall 2025, it adopted the idea Enjoy! Play with Flowers and expanded its role beyond viewing to touching, making, smelling, and tasting. Its explanation of nature positive also emphasizes bringing a connection made through play back into everyday life, rather than leaving conservation as a distant idea. The flower-picking program expresses that approach at its smallest scale.
Layering drawing and rhythm onto a flower field
ART & CULTURE WEEK runs from September 12 through 23. On September 20 and 21, the park will host a picture-book and art market and a participatory drum circle using percussion instruments from around the world. On September 20, Gunma-based artist Natsumi Uehara will also lead a public drawing session and complete a live painting. Instead of placing performances against a floral backdrop, visitors add lines and sounds that make the garden specific to that day.
The drum circle is not a concert received from fixed seats. Children and older adults alike can enter the circle, adding individual beats to a shared flow. The repeated movement of cosmos in the wind meets the uneven rhythm made by human hands. Together, they turn the flower field from a still background into a place for sharing time. In rain, the program moves to the atrium.
Connecting one flower to a letter
On September 26 and 27, a vehicle described by the park as Japan's only Post Car, equipped to accept mailed letters, will visit. Another activity pairs a letter with a single flower picked in the park. Instead of preserving the flower, a visitor sends the chosen stem to someone together with words. The memory of four color zones narrows, step by step, into picking, writing, and delivering.
Regular hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with final admission at 4:30 p.m. The park normally closes on Tuesdays, but it will open September 22 and close September 24 instead. Admission during the fair is 900 yen for adults and 300 yen for elementary and middle school students; preschool children enter free. On September 21, visitors age 65 and older enter free with photo identification. Individual programs may have separate dates, capacities, fees, or rain plans, so confirm the latest official details before setting out.
An autumn garden cannot be possessed all at once. What can be carried away is the order in which someone walked from blue to red, one selected flower, one beat played inside a circle, or one sentence written to another person. Gunma Flower Park + offers more than scenery for recording the abundance of flowers. It is a garden edited into a smaller, personal form by each visitor's actions. The bouquet held in the mind can slightly alter the outline of ordinary life after leaving the park.
