Preparation
Persuading more than one million bulbs and annuals to bloom on cue is a big task, and one that takes careful timing and maintenance. Planning typically begins more than 12 months ahead of schedule, including mapping out the theme, selecting the types of flowers to use, and the all-important planting schedule.
Autumn The gardening team begins constructing Floriade from the ground up, marking out garden beds and installing the important infrastructure, such as drainage and watering systems, that will support the plants during the festival. Paths are created to guide visitors through the garden beds and the overall design of the park begins to take shape. The equivalent of 3000 box trailers of top quality planting compost from Martin Fertilizers is moved in and spread to a depth of 15cm. Next comes the planting. Carefully selecting bulbs of the right variety and colour, the gardeners place each bulb on top of the planting compost, wedging it slightly so it doesn’t move when a 12cm layer of topsoil is added. Because the gardens are spread over four hectares, a team of 20 gardeners work for seven weeks on planting over a million bulbs and annuals.
Winter By August the bulbs and annuals are all reaching maturity and are just about ready to reveal their colours. Finishing touches like props and ornaments are added in preparation for the festival launch.
Spring While Floriade is open to the public the gardening team works around the clock to keep the blooms in top shape. This includes removing dead flower heads, reshaping trodden garden beds, raking paths and giving the plants a regular watering. When Floriade ends the event’s volunteers are offered some of the plants and the remaining flowers are cut and distributed to local nursing homes and hospitals. The spent bulbs and annuals are removed and the garden beds are reduced to ground level. Twenty thousand square metres of turf is laid after the soil is ripped and hoed leaving the ground in tip-top condition for next year’s event. By the end of the year, Commonwealth Park is returned to its regular state as a favourite spot for summer fun.
Did you know? · The name Floriade comes from the Latin word ‘floriat’ which means to design with flowers. · More than 410,000 people visited Floriade in 2011. · The flowers at Floriade bloom and change throughout the festival. · In 2012, 8814 m2 of garden bed area will be filled with 78 varieties of tulips and many other flower varieties.
Read more about this topic: Floriade (Canberra)
Famous quotes containing the word preparation:
“It’s sad but true that if you focus your attention on housework and meal preparation and diapers, raising children does start to look like drudgery pretty quickly. On the other hand, if you see yourself as nothing less than your child’s nurturer, role model, teacher, spiritual guide, and mentor, your days take on a very different cast.”
—Joyce Maynard (20th century)
“With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavours and the tinglings of a merited shame.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Living each day as a preparation for the next is an exciting way to live. Looking forward to something is much more fun than looking back at something—and much more constructive. If we can prepare ourselves so that we never have to think, “Oh, if I had only known, if I had only been ready,” our lives can really be the great adventure we so passionately want them to be.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)