Floriade: Reimagined, the grassroots version of Canberra's celebration of spring, officially came to an end last Sunday, with its gardening team distributing some of the blooms to special people all this week.
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The team cut flowers from plantaboxes and potted displays and delivered them to Clare Holland House, Canberra Hospital, John James Hospital, Calvary Public Hospital, Calvary Private Hospital, University of Canberra Hospital and others.
Events ACT has asked that the Canberra community respects this process and leaves the flowers to be removed only by the Floriade team to brighten the day of those in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.
Floriade: Reimagined has seen more than one million bulbs and annuals bloom across the city and suburbs of Canberra rather than Floriade going ahead as one big event this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Many of the bulbs donated to community groups will stay in the ground, or be replanted next winter.
Other Floriade:Reimagined plantings will remain in place at Woden Town Park, Casey Roundabout, Kippax Library, and in Kingston. The planting at City Hill will remain in place for now.
Events ACT acting executive branch manger of events Ross Triffitt said an independent contractor would survey Canberrans to see what they made of Floriade: Reimagined.
"Once we have the results from that study, we'll be in a clear position. But what I can say, is we've received a lot of positive feedback from the community at large," he said.
Forty official sites were planted, with another 90 tended by community groups.
"That made a significant difference to the number of blooms we could put across the city," Mr Triffitt said.
The randomness of the flowers also struck a chord, as people enjoyed blooms popping up across the city.
"The priorities really changed when we knew the event would not be held in Commonwealth Park and didn't have the same kind of economic focus that it normally does," Mr Triffitt said.
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"It was really about bringing colour to the city, picking sites that were highly visible so the community could see the flowers regularly as they went about their daily business.
"And, hopefully, bring some colour and hope to what we thought could be a particularly dark time when we make the decision back in April."
Labor has promised a return of Floriade: Reimagined if re-elected to government in Saturday's election.
"It is very much a decision for the incoming government and we'll see what happens on the weekend," Mr Triffitt said.
Megan Doherty
I like telling local stories and celebrating Canberra. Email: megan.doherty@canberratimes.com.au
I like telling local stories and celebrating Canberra. Email: megan.doherty@canberratimes.com.au
