Overview: Epcot Flower and Garden Festival 2009

It's just around the corner -- the 16th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Beginning on March 18 and continuing to May 31, this year's festival will feature what we all know and love about the annual event and few new surprises.

New this year are an elaborate "Cinderellabration" topiary and an environmentally friendly Green Garden. And as we've come to expect. there will be dozens of exhibits and activities geared toward gardening and outdoor fun. Flower Power concerts return each weekend at America Gardens Theatre in World Showcase.

Every spring, the raised beds at the entrance to Epcot in the shadow of Spaceship Earth are like a playground for the Disney gardeners! This year, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Snow White and the seven dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip, and Belle and Beast from "Beauty and the Beast" debut in all their "blooming finery" as the grand front-entrance topiary during the 75-day festival. The gardeners create a total of 70 additional topiaries throughout the park.

The 2009 event is offically sponsored by Disneynature, the new Disney label that reflects the love and respect for the natural environment that began with Walt Disney's True Life Adventures in 1948.

This article is my gateway to more details on the festival. I'll add links to related stories as they are added.... visit often!