Floriade - a disappointment this year

Today I went to Floriade, which is Canberra's annual flower show in Commonwealth Park on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin.

It was apparent soon after entering that I was about a week too late, as many of the flowerbeds showed the ravages of the recent poor weather.  I reckon that it was probably at its best last weekend.  I can imagine the panic by the organising committee now that it's been announced that the Queen will be visiting next week. I hope they have a few thousand back-up tulips.

 Beds full of dead flowers.

A gardener starting to remove dead flower heads.











The whole show also seemed noticeably smaller than last year.  There were no sculptures in the lakes like in previous years, and smaller flowerbeds.  Despite the dead flowers, there were still a lot in good condition, particularly those that were in more sheltered areas.

 Copying what everyone else was doing.

Posing for a photo by Mum.  Interesting that teenage girls would agree to wearing matching outfits.

 There is an annual competition for the best decorated garden gnome.

 A girl and her mother painting a gnome.

Floriade

Mum came down for the weekend, so we took the opportunity to visit Floriade, the annual Canberra flower show.  It was a good time to see the flower display as nearly everything was in bloom.  In previous years, by the time we've got there, there had usually been a big storm, or torrential rain, or some other natural disaster that damaged the flowers - but this year everything was ok.  The weather was good too - the temperature had climbed enough that I could get around in shorts.  Mum, however, was covered up to avoid any more skin cancers.

I realised now that I must have a thing for flowers with a red/orange/coral colouring as I can see that most of the photos that I took were of tulips of these colours.

There were a group of people in traditional Polish dress that put on a display of Polish dancing and music, and some hung around for photographs afterwoods.

We were just turning back to the entrance when we looked into a little glade that had interesting decoration.