Canberra Floriade marks arrival of spring in Australia's capital

With more than a million flowers cultivated and anticipating more than half a million visitors, Canberra's 2017 Floriade has opened.

The 30th anniversary of the exhibition of horticultural excellence is Canberra's largest annual event, attracting great numbers than the Summernats in the Christmas holidays.

Explaining how more than a million tulips, daisies, violets, pansies and poppies have been carefully cultivated since February for the spectacle, Floriade's head gardener Andrew Forster told HuffPost Australia "everything is looking good.

"We have got some poppies popping and we can see the designs in the flower beds which is great."

Last year,  poor weather delayed the expected mass bursting of bulbs, but in 2017 it appears all is very well in the flower beds in Commonwealth Park.

Marking the arrival of spring in Australia's capital, calls are growing for the event to have a permanent home for the month-long annual festival which would have the potential to reduce the high running costs, said to be $1.25 million a week, of what is essentially a ‘pop-up month-long annual festival.

There are fears that continuing with the existing arrangement, whereby Floriade takes over much of Commonwealth Park from mid-September to mid-October every spring, could see the event struggle in future years.

An editorial in the Canberra Times suggests “while it remains the most successful floral themed festival in the southern hemisphere with annual attendances well to the north of 450,000 people and a visitor spend estimated at more than $40 million, there is no shortage of challengers with similar events in other capital cities growing in size and popularity year-on-year.” 

14th December 2015 - CANBERRA TO WELCOME RETURN OF ENLIGHTEN 2016

26th October 2015 - EVENTS INDUSTRY SET TO DRIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH

28th September 2015 - NIGHTFEST ILLUMINATES CANBERRA’S SKYLINE OVER FIVE NIGHTS

11th September 2015 - FLORIADE REFLECTS AS ANZACS HONOURED WITH ONE MILLION BLOOMS 

23rd February 2010 - SYDNEY BRIDGECLIMB MAKES LONELY PLANET TOP 10

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