Kanagawa to give local groups 50 flower seedlings and an Expo sign; applications 6–16 October

• This is part of Kanagawa Prefecture’s programme to spread support for GREEN×EXPO 2027 across local communities in the prefecture. Applications and distribution are handled by the Kanagawa Park Association, a public interest incorporated foundation commissioned by the prefecture.
• Who can apply: neighbourhood associations, civic groups, businesses, kindergartens, nursery schools and certified childcare centres in the prefecture. The seedlings must be planted in a public place in the prefecture that many people can enjoy, or used for flower education at a kindergarten or nursery. Groups must also keep caring for the plants, put up the plastic GREEN×EXPO 2027 sign that comes with them, and submit a completion report with photos by 25 December 2026.
• Not eligible: applications for profit, managers or designated managers of parks and similar sites, and elementary, junior high, high and special-needs schools in the prefecture. Schools receive seedlings and signs separately, around October, through the Kanagawa Flower-Blooming School Project.
• What is provided: either seedlings with a sign, or seedlings with a sign plus a planter, potting soil and pot-bottom stones. Each group receives 50 seedlings (five varieties, ten of each), and smaller numbers are available for smaller flowerbeds.
• How to apply: send the application form by post or email between Tuesday 6 October and Friday 16 October 2026 (must arrive by the 16th). One application per group or contact person. Applications are screened, and a lottery is held if there are too many. Results are sent around early November.
• Collection: choose one of four parks in the prefecture and a preferred date and time between Wednesday 18 and Tuesday 24 November, 9:00–16:00.
• Photos submitted with completion reports may be used to promote GREEN×EXPO 2027.
• The programme name and the Kanagawa Flower-Blooming School Project are trip-jp’s own English renderings; the prefecture has not published official English names.

Our take

Kanagawa is sending flowers in two directions. This programme hands neighbourhood groups and nurseries 50 seedlings and a sign for public places. Schools get their own scheme, the Kanagawa Flower-Blooming School Project, shown at the Kanagawa Pavilion event on 8 September, where four schools received seedlings and heard that photos of their flowers would go on display inside the pavilion. Flowers in the streets on one side, flowers grown at school and shown at the pavilion on the other.

Collection runs from 18 to 24 November and completion reports are due by 25 December, so by December the signed flowerbeds should be in the ground across the prefecture: three months of advertising through local flowerbeds before opening day. How many groups, and which varieties, is not published, so the scale is unknown.

Park managers are excluded, which points to small units such as neighbourhood associations and nurseries rather than sites that already have flowerbeds. Since photos from the completion reports may be used for publicity, some of these flowerbeds may turn up on the prefecture’s site or at the venue.

Tips for visitors

• Expect to see the signed flowerbeds from late November. Station forecourts on the Sotetsu and JR Yokohama lines look like natural candidates.
• Photos of flowers grown at schools are due to be displayed at the Kanagawa Pavilion. See our article on the pavilion.
• Kanagawa posts these notices on its special site news page (Japanese). We check the same page and cover what matters to visitors.