The waning summer gives us her last, most vivid colors. News for those who love begonias: in Brussels, Belgium, opened the famous flower show – Flower Carpet. More precisely, it shows one flower – begonia.
The Show must go on!
The floral splendour in front of the town hall on the Grand place, the Central square of Brussels, is 47 years old this year. There was this tradition in 1971 at the initiative of the designer Etienne Stoutamire involved in landscape design and formed a small carpeted flower arrangements.
The cobblestones of the Grand place is covered with flower carpet every two years, the weekend nearest to August 15. The area of the flower cover is 1800 square meters. Its width – 24 meters and length – 75.
Flower carpet in Brussels is mainly made up of begonias – favorite colors Etienne Stalemate. In addition, used inflorescences of dahlias, lawn grass and bark.
Begonia is a fertile material for creating floral arrangements. In Belgium, it is considered a national flower, because this country is the world’s largest producer of begonias: 35 million bulbs a year! 80 % of the total production grown almost exclusively in the Ghent area since 1860 is exported mainly to the Netherlands, the USA, the UK, France and Germany.
Tuberosa Grandiflora gives a special beauty to floral carpets. Being from India, it is able to withstand strong wind, heat and rain even in a cut form. After all, the pattern on the pavement spread, using only inflorescences. And begonia has a lot of shades that allow you to make any color palette under the plan of designers.
Each carpet is dedicated to a separate topic, which is approved in advance. This is done by a non-profit organization Tapis de Fleurs, which includes an Illustrator, graphic designer, landscape designer. Then a sketch is developed, the required number of colors is calculated and their shades are selected. For example, in 2012, the theme of the carpet at the Grand place was African culture. Unusual bright tapestry of shimmering patterns, made up of ornaments of tribes of Ethiopia, Congo, Nigeria, Botswana and Cameroon, decorated the area of European Brussels.
In 2016, at the last show, the floral carpet was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Belgian-Japanese friendship. And this year the theme of the twenty-first carpet of flowers surrounded by Gothic architecture of the Grand place – “Guanajuato, the cultural pride of Mexico.”
Like Brussels, this state in Central Mexico has a rich tradition in creating tapestries on the streets. An annual event there is a La Octava Noche in the southern city Urato, where the locals decorate the streets miles of “carpets” made of colored sawdust. This is one of the most important events in the cultural life of Central Mexico.
The pattern of the flower carpet in 2018 is recognized as one of the most complex in the history of the Belgian flower show. His sketch was developed by Mexican artist Ana Rosa Aguilar Aguado. A life-size carpet collected from nearly a million colors of begonias on the square a hundred volunteers under the direction unchanged the main designer show Brand Shuttle.
The area is covered with a film of Microperforated plastic with the applied pattern of the future carpet. Then on it spread the prepared flowers according to the developed color schemes of a pattern.
Inflorescences laid out very tightly – almost 300 pieces per square meter. In this way, a special microclimate is created for the flowers, allowing to please tourists throughout the show, and the pattern is not blown by the wind. The space between the motifs of flowers and the perimeter of the carpet is lined with turf. In hot weather, it is watered to keep the pattern alive from drying out.
Thus, the preparatory work for the creation of floral masterpieces on the Grand place takes almost two years, and the project is implemented in just eight hours – more than a hundred volunteers begin their work at the fifth hour of the morning to finish by noon.
Floral carpet in Brussels every time attracts many tourists. You can see the carpet of flowers on the Grand place for free, and if you want to see the whole panorama of the magnificent decoration of the square, for a small fee you can go to the galleries of the hotel, located in the city hall.
In addition to the Grand panel of flowers during the festival on the square in front of the town hall are light and pyrotechnic shows, concerts, which are also dedicated to the chosen theme for the event.
Last year, in addition to the main carpet of flowers in the square, the organizers created an exhibition “UNESCO Monuments in flowers” of floral carpets smaller. They are located on the Brussels stock exchange. The exhibition is organized in connection with the anniversary of the recognition of the whole ensemble of Grand place in the capital of Belgium UNESCO world heritage.
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