In a culture where vacations are increasingly prized for their “gee whiz” factor — swimming with sharks, zero-gravity rides and the like — do people still take trips just to look at pretty flowers?

If attendance at public gardens is any indication, the answer is yes.

Two cyclists bike through one of the free tulip fields during the 2004 Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Skagit County, Wash. This year's festival is April 1-30.

“Our anecdotal information from member institutions leads us to believe that attendance is up. Particularly after 9-11 there seemed to be a surge, perhaps people seeking natural beauty and serenity after all the man-made horror of the time,” said Sharon Lee, spokeswoman for the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta.

To increase their year-round appeal, many public gardens have added art shows, concerts and family-oriented exhibits. A children’s garden that opened at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Mich., led to a 91 percent spike in attendance last July. New exhibits and a concert series helped push visitation at the Denver Botanic Gardens from 388,000 to 550,000 in four years.

But spring flowers also draw crowds, and every region has its treasures. Cherry blossom festivals are held in Washington, D.C., and at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York. Philadelphia has one of the nation’s best-known flower shows each March. And wildflowers color the landscape from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Arizona desert, where above-average rainfall has created a bumper crop of spring flowers already in bloom, including pink fairy dusters, white silverbells and blue lupines.

The South, blessed with gentle winters and early springs, is particularly rich in gardens. Top picks from Gene Bussell, Southern Living magazine’s garden editor, include Middleton Place in Charleston, S.C., which has one of the nation’s oldest formally designed gardens, dating to the 1740s, and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., which was elegantly landscaped by the renowned Beatrix Farrand.

But wherever you are, as the weather gets warmer, it won’t be hard to find something beautiful in bloom. Here are some ideas from around the country about places to see spring flowers. Before you go, check on holiday closures, fees and hours, which may vary as the days get longer.