Almond blossom season: where to see it in Mallorca

When the almonds flower

Almond trees are among the first trees to flower in Mallorca’s year. The blossom usually comes from late January through February, and in some years lasts into March. The exact timing changes from year to year with the weather. Most blossom is white, some pale pink, and on a sunny day the fields look as if there has been a light fall of snow, which is how many islanders describe it.

It is a short show, and rain or strong wind can strip the petals quickly. If you are on the island in early February, go and look straight away.

Where to see it

Almonds grow wherever there is dry-farmed land, so you will find blossom across much of the island’s interior. The best areas are the farming plain in the middle of Mallorca and the foothills at the foot of the Tramuntana.

• The Pla: the central plain, where almond groves share the land with cereal fields, figs and carobs. Back roads between villages such as Sencelles, Algaida, Montuïri, Porreres and Petra run straight through them.
• The Raiguer: the strip below the mountains around Santa Maria del Camí, Marratxí, Lloseta and Inca, where almonds grow alongside vineyards and olive groves.
• Around Bunyola, where the old train to Sóller passes blossoming fields on its way into the mountains.
• The south and east: the countryside around Llucmajor, Felanitx and Son Servera.

For a view over the whole plain, drive up to one of the hilltop sanctuaries: Cura on the Puig de Randa, above Algaida, or Bonany above Petra. From the top you can see how the groves fit between the towns.

A fair in Son Servera

Son Servera, in the east of the island, holds an almond blossom fair, the Fira de la Flor d’Ametler, on a Sunday at the start of February. It takes place at Ca s’Hereu, an old estate house in the municipality, with almond dishes to try, stalls selling products made from almonds, their blossom or almond oil, and old farm tools on display. It has been running for more than a decade.

What the blossom tells you about the interior

The almond groves are a reminder that inland Mallorca is farming country. Many were planted from the 19th century onwards, as farmers replaced vines with almond trees, and the trend sped up when phylloxera, a vine pest, destroyed much of the island’s vineyards around 1900. Almonds need no irrigation, which suits the dry-farmed land of the Pla and the Raiguer, where groves still surround old farmhouses and estates.

It is also a landscape under pressure. The area of almond orchards has shrunk sharply over recent decades, as foreign competition made the crop barely viable and many dry-farmed plots were left untended. Since 2016, when it was first detected in Mallorca, Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterial disease spread by sap-feeding insects, has killed many trees, and on a drive in February you will see grey, leafless trees among the flowering ones. Research has found that some almond varieties resist it better than others, and the Balearic government has backed a plan to plant new orchards.

For buyers: almonds on a finca

Many country houses in the Pla and the Raiguer come with almond trees. They are part of the land’s character, but they need looking after.

• Ask how the trees have been cared for, and whether any have died or been removed.
• Pruning and harvesting take work. Some owners arrange with a local farmer to look after the trees.
• Dead trees and dry undergrowth add to the fire risk in summer, so clearing the land is a regular job.
• Rustic land comes with strict building rules. Read buying a finca before you fall for a house among the blossom.

A drive through the interior in early February is also a good way to judge an area. The villages are lived in all year, the roads are quiet, and you see the countryside as it is in winter, before the summer heat turns it gold and dry.

Areas in this post

Central: Pla · Central: Raiguer