Epcot: Preview of Flower & Garden Festival, now in the works

There are more than 100 topiaries in this year's festival.

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival opens this Wednesday, but over the weekend, we had opportunity to see some of the behind-the-scenes/construction walls activities. Many of the topiaries and gardens have popping up for a while throughout the park — these things don’t just happen overnight.  Festival horticulturist Eric Darden noted that 90 percent was in place as of Saturday. “We’re ready to roll,” he says.

The last installation is the front centerpiece, which will reflect the Celebrating the Great Outdoors theme and feature a 14-foot fishing Goofy topiary an a real waterfall in the shadow of Spaceship Earth. among others. That will slide into place after park hours on Tuesday.

Our first stop was behind Spaceship Earth, where topiaries of Lion King characters are in place. After Disney gardeners get everything in its proper place, they take  a step back to inspect the overall look. In this Lion King case, it was decided to add more color and then palm trees to back up the scene better. “That happens in every single garden,” Darden says.

(Side note: The Scar topiary  weighs about 1,300 pounds.)

Topiaries are made of a lot of things beyond vegetation, Darden explained. Things like rebar, hog rings, deer netting and a slew of hair pins.

Next we went behind the walls of Pixie Hollow Fairy Garden, which this year is expanded to include the butterfly garden (now known as Fawn’s Butterfly Garden. Poor Minnie).

Already in place was the topiary of  Terence (pictured). If you’re not up-to-date on your Disney Fairies, Terence is the distributor of pixie dust. (And props to one of you who first referred to him as Tinker Boy.)

There will be more than 600 native butterflies in the tented area. And I learned this: Butterflies aren’t attracted to black, so generally they don’t try to dart out of the tent because the doorways are covered by black chains. Epcot is educational, right?

Moving back into the park, there are bunches – OK, like 120, I’m told — of the floating mini-gardens in the waterways between World Showcase and Future World.

This year, they are bright yellow, made of yellow violas — not the impatiens of the past. They’ll only get brighter, Darden says. “If we ever get any sun, it’s going to knock your socks off,” he says.

In the transition area, there’s a new area  featuring dolphin topiaries, which is in support of the upcoming Disneynature film, Oceans.

“We’ve never done dolphins before,” Darden says. Admire the frolicking. (The film is set for release this April.)

The American Gothic inspired topiaries of Mickey and Minnie actually exceeded my expectations, which were pretty high to begin with. They stand at the entrance to World Showcase amid home gardening crops such as corn.

Guests surveys indicated they wanted the topiaries “closer to the rails and more accessible,” Darden says. Here’s Peter Pan, Hook and the croc in the UK pavilion (France in background.)

Our final behind-the-wall glimpse was of the Tuscan garden being constructed between France and Morocco. This is a green wall, surrounding a fountain that will be working by Wednesday. It promises to be a soothing spot. “This is going to be the best garden we’ve ever done,” Darden says.

Stay tuned.