Every year, the Floriade Spring Festival takes Place in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. This year, I had an opportunity to take the three and a half hour drive down to Canberra to take a look around. Floriade first started in 1988 for the joint celebration of the 75th anniversary of the city of Canberra and the bi-centennary of European settlement in Australia. The idea was developed by landscape designer Christian Slotemaker De Bruine and with horticulturist Peter Sutton (and the staff of City Parks), the colourful displays were brought into being. The event has been held every year since, from mid-September to mid-October.
Every year, there is a theme-this year it is ‘Science and Nature’. There are twelve different garden displays to have a look at, each laid out in a display representing a different aspect of the year’s theme, which I think is a really good idea. The twelve garden beds are as follows:
- Molecular structure
- Human brain
- Computer science
- Atom
- Petri dish
- Lavatory equipment
- Spectrum
- Under the microscope
- In space
- Mechanism
- Temperature
- DNA
Each garden bed has various bulbs and annuals laid out in a way to represent that particular topic-sn from above, this does look good, but the problem with this is that there is no way to see the displays from above, apart from by scanning a QR code on the information signs next to each garden bed. This does take away from the displays, as you only get a side on view of these beds, so only get a side on view. While this is a personal gripe because it would be great to see the view from above with my eyes rather than on a screen as I was there, the colour and the the way the garden beds were really well done.
The displays are colourful, bright and showy in the way that only a European spring flower display can be. Red, yellow, pink, purple, orange and white all appear in all shades and I really enjoyed this colour.
Tulips, pansies, violas and hyacinths all play a part in the displays. As I was walking around I was hoping to be able to decide on a favourite display or a favourite flower, but that was too hard to do as I liked all of them, so here are a few that I really did like.
As well as the flower displays, there are food and rafts stores too, so there is plenty to keep people busy for a while, but I was there for the flower displays only!
On my visit to Floriade, I spent a very pleasant couple of hours walking around looking at all the colour around Commonwealth Park (where it’s held each year). I loved the tulips in particular, but I enjoyed it all. I just wish it was a little bigger and the wind was a little less cold!