Ashikaga flower Park is a beautiful Japanese garden in the southern part of Tochigi Prefecture that has been developed to have a number of different floral themes during the year.

Wisteria are called fuji in Japanese and  Ashikaga is one of the best places in Japan to see Fuji..
One large Wisteria tree is over 100 years old and its branches are supported creating a canopy of purple flowers. There is also a long tunnel of white Wisteria flowers, and a new  tunnel of Laburnum is growing, already quite impressive.

In total there are 8 chapters to the Ashikaga Flower Park story…

• Chapter 1             Heralding Spring
• Chapter 2             Spring Flower Festival
• Chapter 3             Wisteria Story
• Chapter 4             Rainbow Garden
• Chapter 5             Blue & White Garden
• Chapter 6             Water Nymphs (Water Lilies)
• Chapter 7             Purple Garden
• Chapter 8             Bejeweled Flower Garden     (Illumination)
  Clearly they have a strong marketing team, because in addition to the above they make this comment on their website ‘Ashikaga Flower Park creates value through exquisite seasonal gardens’.

Good marketing and good delivery – the park was amazing.Its May so I went for the ‘Wisteria Story” which includes Purple, pink and white Wisteria and Yellow wisteria which is actually Laburnum.
But in addition to the Wisteria, there are so many other shrubs and flowers blooming, it is a riot of color..  Rhododendrons, Orchids, Poppies, Hyacinth, Azaleas and many more are on show..
There are ponds, walkways, flower tunnels and floating flower beds.
The park opens at 7am, and is pretty crowded by 10 am and stays open until 9:00 pm with illuminations apparently quite spectacular.
There is lots of parking although the roads get clogged pretty badly around the Park.
Or if you come from Tokyo you can take the JR Utsunomiya Line, JR Shonan-Shinjuku Line or JR Tohoku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Oyama (only a few shinkansen stop there) and transfer to the JR Ryomo Line. Get off at Tomita Station, one station before Ashikaga Station, from where it is a 15 minute walk to the park.  They have day and night entry prices

Day time 7:00 – 17:30 1400 yen/700 yen for children
Night time 17:30 – 21:00 1100 yen/600 yen. For children

Finally they have an English map available, but not so easy to find.  As you enter you go through the shop.. On the far right side level with the entrance is a flyer rack.  That was the only place I found an English map.
They also have a good English website too..

Ashikaga English Website