Chattanooga Flowers – Photographer’s Guide

I’ll get straight to the point. I don’t have a green thumb, but I love photographing flowers. More specifically, I love photographing people with flowers. Blooms just bring such lovely color and texture to portraits. Thankfully, our area offers a variety of beautiful blooms throughout the spring and summer. Here’s my little guide to Chattanooga flowers. Yes, I totally have a spreadsheet on my computer that lists out different variety of flowers and typical bloom times. Mother Nature does have a mind of her own, so keep in mind the timing can vary from year to year!

Cherry Blossoms

These are usually some of the earliest blooms to appear (unless you count daffodils who sometimes appear in February when freezing cold temperatures are still frequent). These lovely trees make a showing the second half of March and sometimes into the very first week of April.

Blooming Cherry Trees

Blooming Cherry Tree’s usually start showing out with their unique pink puff balls around the beginning of April. These are some of my favorite Chattanooga flowers to photography. The temperatures have usually settled into a nice warm pattern, but frequent rain showers can be a tricky obstacle to completing Chattanooga photography sessions at this time of year.

Rhododendron

Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain are covered with Rhododendron. These Chattanooga flowers are perfect for portrait sessions if you like a bold pop of purple or hot pink. They usually peak around the beginning of May. Pro tip: Spring is a wonderful time to schedule with Chattanooga photographers if you are looking for a family session or children’s portraits. The weather is typically still mild and the sun still sets at a reasonable time.

Roses

Look for roses at the end of may and beginning of June! These classic flowers can make for a lovely backdrop to your senior portraits, family session, or children’s portraits.

Sunflowers

Sunflower fields are very popular in the Chattanooga area during the middle of summer. My family usually visits Smith Perry Berries on a yearly basis in Ooltewah. The post updates to their facebook page about approximate bloom times as the season gets closer. I will warn you that sunflowers usually bloom when sunset is at its latest, which can be hard timing for young families. Personally, my family typically tries to visit on a weeknight when the crowds will be sparse and then make sure we don’t have anything planned for the next morning.

Zinnias

If you are looking for a rainbow of color, you need to visit the zinnia fields at Flat Top Mountain Farm in the fall!! It is such a beautiful setting, in general and offers lots of fun family activities throughout the year. This past season, the owner planted several rounds of zinnias, so the field was in bloom from September well into the later fall.

This rounds out my current list of favorite Chattanooga flowers for photoshoots. I’m always looking to add more! Do you have a favorite flower or location I haven’t included? Leave me a comment! Are you interested in scheduling your own portrait session featuring Chattanooga flowers? Learn more about sessions with me here and see more of my work here.