By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

They say that April showers bring May flowers, but in the Mexican capital’s upscale Colonia Polanco, there was no need to wait another month before seeing the city in full bloom.

For the third straight year, the hotels, shops and restaurants along Polanco’s opulent Avenida Presidente Masaryk and Parque Lincoln celebrated the arrival of spring with a colorful and aromatic display of multihued blossoms and floral sculptures.

A total of 109 local businesses participated in the four-day Festival of Flowers and Gardens (FYJA), which opened on Thursday, April 4, and included an array of public workshops, conferences and concerts, as well as an open-air exhibit of floral art.

The now-annual festival was first held in 2017 and was the brainchild of the nonprofit Plantando con Causa Association, which helps sponsor maintenance costs for Mexico City’s Bosques de Chapultepec Botanical Gardens.

The festival’s objective is to promote public awareness of nature preservation and to encourage environmental conservation.

This year, the theme of the FYJA was pollinators, so there were plenty of giant butterflies, birds, bees and even bats interspersed among the flower displays, although there were also owls, whales and white carnation sheep.

All of the more than 150 floral sculptures were created by Mexican artists, using almost entirely flowers produced in Mexico.