Who does spring blooms best - east or west Australia?

What's first on your 'bouquet list' - endless fields of multicoloured petals in WA or streets with swathes of purple in NSW? Our experts help you decide.

By Amy Cooper

With apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson, in the spring a young petal head's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of buds. Springtime is bloom time in Oz and nature's colourful and fragrant exposition bursts forth with an exuberance and optimism to match the returning warmth, the smell of freshly cut grass and the sneezing that accompany the end of our winter hibernation.

Unsurprisingly, it is the biggest state that puts on the biggest show, as Mother Nature scatters her multi-hued confetti from an endlessly vivid palette all the way from the Pilbara to the Great Southern. Jacarandas, on the other hand, are purple. Which is ok, if you like purple. And only purple. Don't get me wrong, purple is great for radishes, on a Prince playlist and at Fremantle Dockers home games, but, in the end, a full set of crayons is better than just one.

Western Australia's seven distinctive wildflower regions use every crayon in the box to create splendorous canvases, spreading more than 12,000 species across the landscape, most of which are found nowhere else. From the deep red and green kangaroo paws that bloom among the wineries of Margaret River to the grevilleas and foxgloves on the Coral Coast near Exmouth, there are dedicated trails for the most passionate flora-philes, each a lengthy discovery of the blossoming west. And early rains this year are predicted to make this year a particularly resplendent season.

Guided tours will connect you with the botanical specifics but self-drive itineraries mean you can tiptoe through the orchids, hakeas and leschenaultias at your own pace. And as spring seeps into the lower recesses of the state, you can wind your way slowly south on a movable floral feast from June to November. With so many regions to visit and so many wildflowers to see, you can take your pick. Be warned though, if you do pick a wildflower, it's a $2000 fine, which seems a bit harsh when there are so many millions of them lying around.

One intensely vivid self-drive is the 309-kilometre Wildflower Way between Dalwallinu and Geraldton, which includes Coalseam Conservation Park, renowned for its carpets of pink, yellow and white everlastings and daisies. These flamboyant coverings make Pro Hart's Stainmaster carpet ad look positively monochromatic.

Kings Park in Perth boasts an enormous tract of natural bushland and botanic gardens, and hosts Australia's largest annual wildflower show and exhibition each September. South of the capital, the Jarrahdale Trail, Southern Wonders Trail and Esperance Trail offer varying florid fascinations, blended with towering forests, pristine coastlines and windswept mountain ranges.

If you want a blooming good immersion this spring, go for the big, go for the colourful, go for the best. Go west, young petal head, go west.

By Mal Chenu

Prepare for purple prose, because I love jacarandas. And I love them most of all when they bloom. In other parts of the world, spring's advent is a gentle affair - a peep of daffodil here, a blade of green there. But in Australia, and especially Sydney, our most beloved adopted tree announces the season with all the subtlety of Cher opening a Vegas residency.

It's stupidly spectacular. Along streets, jacarandas cavort in purple-costumed chorus lines. They transform parks into purple palaces, paint purple pipedreams in backyards and wave a wand over even the saddest Cinderella spaces so they can parade in purple ballgowns once a year. Their petal pyrotechnics are as joyous and exotic and exuberant as the carnival back in their Brazilian birthplace - so it's no surprise that Sydney, a city with the heart of a showgirl, is arguably Australia's jacaranda capital.

In mid-October the curtain rises on the violet vision, and just like your Christmas budget, it's all gone by December. In between, petal-fall turns canopy to carpet. That mesmerising moment of purple above and beneath is the perfect time to wander the blooming barrel of Kirribilli's Insta-famous McDougall Street or see Circular Quay and the Harbour Bridge through a purple haze in First Fleet Park or pay homage to the stately 150-year-old specimens in the Botanic Gardens.

Pack a picnic and see North Sydney's Lavender Bay at the only time it really is or sail west up the purple-lined Parramatta River for more mauve magic in places like Elizabeth Farm and Parramatta Park. You can take a jacaranda cruise on the lower Lane Cove River for grandstand views of grand Hunters Hill gardens or do your Christmas shopping with a purple backdrop in Paddington.

The purple party doesn't stop in Sydney. Up in the Northern Rivers, Grafton's most famous residents are its 1700 perfumed jacarandas - many of them more than 100 years old - and the town's annual Jacaranda Festival will celebrate its 90th anniversary from October 18 to November 3 with more lilac love than ever before: fairground rides, purple ice creams, drag queens and the trees in See Park lit up at night.

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Queensland claims Australia's OG jacaranda, planted in 1864 in Brisbane City Botanic Gardens and featured in the famous 1903 R Godfrey Rivers painting Under the Jacaranda. The tree's long gone, but its descendants bloom on in the gardens and adjacent University of Queensland campus as well as Wilson Outlook Reserve, Captain Burke Park and Princess Street. No wonder people cross countries to see jacarandas. Wildflowers are wonderful, but they can't transform entire skylines, turn roads into royal rugs or immerse a whole city in a happy cloud of violet vibes.

Bring on spring, and all hail the Jacaranda's purple reign.