To celebrate a Big O birthday, I was treated to a weekend in Hong Kong to see the famous annual flower show.
entry ticket
It was so exciting!
Entry was not expensive, only 14 HKD (about 1.50 GBP). In fact we could have had free admission as fully fledged 60 year olds but we thought perhaps that was just for Hong Kong residents so we flashed the cash and paid for our tickets.
The flower show consisted of lots of intricate and ornamental model gardens and floral displays – although very contrived in design, the beauty of the flowers and plants was exquisite.
There were lots of specialist areas – in particular, orchids and hibiscus. I have never seen such a vast array of different orchids in my life. The colours were exquisite – like great bouquets of coloured jewels.
The explosion of colour was incredible, and equally incredible was the juxtaposition of the floral displays and the enormously tall, glass skyscrapers monopolising the skyline from outside the park. Each display was amazing. There were miniature castles, little cottages, topiary reindeer, exotic blooms floating on invisible supports…
I was very happy to see there was a great number of visiting schools – lots of teenagers in uniform, sitting with sketchpads and paints, silently and diligently creating beautiful illustrations and paintings of their chosen blooms. It was lovely to see a new generation of botanical artists in the making.
