The latest addition to Grahamstown’s festival family the Grahamstown Flower Festival continues to grow in size and quality and the wheels are well in motion for this year’s event in October.
The latest addition to Grahamstown’s festival family the Grahamstown Flower Festival continues to grow in size and quality and the wheels are well in motion for this year’s event in October.
Previously known as the Spring Flower Show under the banner of the Albany Horticultural & Lilium Society, the Grahamstown Flower Festival will be held in the Makana Botanical Gardens on October 23 and 24.
The society’s annual flower show has a fifty-year history, but it has been in the past two years that the show has undergone many significant changes and improvements.
After gracing local halls all these years with row upon row of colourful and exquisite blooms, the show was moved to the serene and natural environment of the Botanical Gardens across the road from the Rhodes University campus in 2008.
For the second year, a garden competition, Gardens of Grahamstown, will be held in conjunction with the flower competition, with the theme for this year being “Unearthing the loveliest local gardens”.
Flower festival co-ordinator Sharon Richner is particularly upbeat about the garden competition, which proved extremely popular with Grahamstown homeowners and gardeners last year.
She said that organisers had acquired the services of three experts in their respective fields to act as judges for the garden competition.
Jo Clinton of Jo Clinton Landscape Design in Paterson will be looking for coherent, well though-out designs that use both hard and soft landscaping to achieve the overall effects.
Warren Lange, who lives in Port Alfred and commutes on a regular basis to his business HortCouture in Johannesburg, does regular television inserts on Top Billing.
He has recently launched a new company that specialises in the design and outsourcing of gardens for residential and commercial clients.
Malcolm Southey owns a nursery in Grahamstown, and was previously involved in corporate landscaping. He graduated with a national diploma in landscaping technology, and will bring in his local knowledge when judging Grahamstown gardens.
The garden competition will cater for four categories of gardens – small gardens (under 500 square metres); medium gardens (500 to 1 000 square metres);
large gardens (over 1 000 square metres); and township gardens. Entry forms for the garden competition are obtainable from Pam Golding Properties in African Street, Makana Tourism on Church Square, and the Umthathi Training Project offices at 21 West Street.
All information pertaining to competition deadlines and conditions for entry may be found on the entry forms and the festival website www. grahamstownflowerfestival.co.za
