Did You Smile Today ?: JAPAN Part 1 : Shibazakura (Moss Pink, Mos phlox)

The carpet of flowers；Shibazakura 羊山公園芝桜の丘

Japan offers lots of flowers to enjoy in spring. After Sakura season is over, the Shibazakura (Moss Pink or Phlox Subulata) season reaches its peak.

Moss pink is commonly called "Shiba-zakura" in Japanese which can be translated as "lawn cherry blossoms" because they are stretching out like lawn on the ground with the beautiful pink and white colored flowers just like Cherry blossoms.

Shibazakura blooming around from middle of April until beginning of May depending on the weather condition of the year

Fuji shibazakura matsuri

Ushiku, Ibaraki

Hitsujiyama Koen Shibazakura

Hitsujiyama Koen is located in Chichibu-shi, Saitama Prefecture, and is around 105 minutes by Seibu Railway Limited Express from Ikebukuro, Tokyo. It is famous for Sakura blossom and Shibazakura (plants color like Sakura but grow on the ground).

Using the slope of the Hitsujiyama Hill at the foot of Chichibu’s symbolic Mt. Buko (1,304m) to cultivate a variety of differently colored moss pink, this is quite literally a ‘flower patchwork’ It has been newly renamed ‘Shibazakura Hill’　Expansion and increased cultivation work is carried out every year, and it has an area of approx. 16,500㎡ filled with over 400,000 pink, white and purple flowers of nine types (members of the Polemoniaceae family and phlox genus).