Starting August, 14 the Grand Place Square of Brussels will turn into the spectacular Carpet of Flowers. This remarkable event happens every other year and attracts not only tourists but professional florists as well. The event lasts for 4 days during which the carpet is staying fresh and radiant.
The flower carpet is 75 m long and 25 m wide and is build out of approximately 750,000 begonias. 300 begonias are placed to every square meter of the ground to create ornate design on the ground. This year theme for the carpet is the celebration of the 50 anniversary of Turkish immigration in Belgium and was inspired by the geometric patterns of Turkey’s famous kilims.
Why begonias?
The main component of the flower carpet is begonia. Chosen because of its resistance to bad weather and strong sunshine, the begonias allow the long and fresh life of the flower carpet. Also, with the range of colors – from bright colors to delicate pastel and white, begonias are truly an ideal choice.
Making the flower carpet
The process of creating the Carpet starts a year in advance, with the creation of the theme, projects and scale models illustrating the chosen theme.
Then it proceeds to calculation of the number of flowers and colors. The outline is drawn on the ground. The day before the spaces between the floral patterns are filled with rolled turf.
And only after all that preparation, the actual creation of the carpet starts. Approximately a hundred of skillful experienced gardeners are engaged into putting this giant floral jigsaw together. The process takes them about four hours.
Interesting fact: the flowers are packed together one by one so tightly (no soil is used at all) that the wind will not blow them away. Such close proximity of begonias allows the creation of their own microclimate.
A Little Bit of History
Officially, the first Floral Carpet as its present-day form was created in 1971 by the landscape architect E. Stautemans, who loved and worked with begonias for many years. He quickly became an expert in the creation of sophisticated floral carpets with complicated designs.
After his fame spread, he was asked to make carpets not only in different cities of Belgium but worldwide (Cologne, Hamburg, Luxemburg, Paris, London, Amsterdam, The Hague, Vienna, Valencia, Buenos Aires and Colombus, Ohio). After all his experiences in other cities which included creating much larger carpets than in Brussels, E. Stautemas still thought of the one in Brussels as the most beautiful. As he himself expressed it, “Nowhere is the carpet more beautiful and distinguished than in the unique, ancient surroundings of the Grand-Place in Brussels”.