A half-man-half-plant Floriade performer (unexpectedly) pushed through the crowd to steal a bite from Chief Minister Andrew Barr’s Floriade-themed cupcake. Photo: Travis Radford.
Self-named herbosapian locomotus perfectum (very roughly translated as ‘perfect mobile plant-human’) has sown seeds of chaos at the 2023 floral wonderland-themed Floriade launch.
At the sidelines of an otherwise orderly media event, the half-man-half-plant interrogated Floriade’s head gardener on where he would be planted and took a bite from Chief Minister Andrew Barr’s cupcake.
As Chief Minister Barr appealed to the “weather gods” for clear skies and a turnout of more than half a million people, plant-man lifted his petal hands and struck a statuesque pose by his side.
“It’s a very mature event. It’s nearly as old as me. It’s been around a long time and it needs to continue to evolve and innovate,” Chief Minister Barr said.
The theme of the 2023 celebration of spring is ‘Floral Wonderland’, with Adelaide Fringe award-winning show, Circus Wonderland – A Neverland Adventure, to be performed in a central Floriade Wonderland Spiegeltent, set among over one million blooms.
The 36th rendition of the flower show, which dates back to Canberra’s 75th anniversary in 1988, will also feature themed circus performances, cabaret, interactive workshops and stained-glass window displays.
The after-dark NightFest (28 September to 1 October), Dogs’ Day Out (15 October) and Great Big Bulb Dig (16 October) will also return alongside the free daytime program (16 September to 15 October).
One of the Canberrans behind the annual festival is head gardener Tim Howard, who is responsible for everything from making sure orders are correct through to caring for the flowers as they grow.
“The lifecycle of the Floriade project is actually 18 months, which means even as we’re celebrating the launch of this year’s show, we’ve commenced work on next year’s show already,” he says.
“A lot of that time is the design process. We commenced construction in March, so between March through to the end of June, it’s ‘Build, build, build, plant, plant, plant’.”
This year is Mr Howard’s second-ever Floriade in the job, and he says a key lesson learned from last year has been to begin planting in March, not April.
“The eight-week difference will mean our annuals will be that much bigger and fuller, there’ll be fewer weeds, and it’ll be a more impressive display,” he says.
With planting now finished, Mr Howard and his team are in “caretaker mode” until temperatures warm in spring and the bulbs burst through the soil.
But Mr Howard says this post-planting period is anything but quiet and involves protecting plants from rotting or drying out, as well as hungry critters.
“There was a delay between us planting and it being bird netted and vermin fenced and rabbits ate half the bed to the ground,” Mr Howard says.
“It’s a bit disheartening as a gardener having to go back and replant, but we replanted half the garden bed because we had to.”
Around 300,000 more bulbs and annuals have also been placed in the care of 94 community groups, with the lockdown-era Floriade Community program continuing for the fourth year running.
The festival is expected to bring more than $55 million to the Territory’s economy – “if all things go our way, $60 million is the target,” Chief Minister Barr says – up from $52 million last year.
David Schmidtchen, representing Canberra-based organisation and Floriade sponsor Synergy Group Australia, recommitted his company to raising funds for charity at this year’s festival.
“A principal part of our approach last year, and will be again this year, was raising money for charity. Last year we raised $75,000 for two Canberra-based charities,” he says.
“Floriade is an event that connects people, that brings people from inter-state and it’s been a part of the culture of the Canberra community for some time and we’re really proud to be associated with it.”
Floriade 2023 runs from 16 September to 15 October. NightFest runs from 28 September to 1 October. For more details, visit Floriade Australia.
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