Spring flowers

Today I awoke to glorious spring weather so off I went to Floriade.  I went alone as DH does not like flowers, crowds and suffers from hay-fever.  Floriade is the biggest flower festival in the southern hemisphere with  over 1 million bulbs and annuals planted each year. (including 87 varieties of tulips, 45 varieties of pansies and 13 varieties of hyacinths).  You can just imagine the scent of all those hyacinths - it was beautiful.  The flower planting is staggered so there are flowers on display for the whole month.The garden beds cover 9,105 square metres.

It started in 1988 to celebrate Canberra's 75th birthday.

At the end of Floriade (in mid October) the gardens are all dug up, bulbs sold to the public and any flowers left are picked and given to hospitals and nursing homes in the region.

It was difficult to take photos without any people in! However I tried very hard and managed a number of shots without humans - these ones below give the impress that I am all alone - sadly I wasn't, there were thousands of people getting in my way.
 In one of the exhibition tents they had some beautiful flower displays plus these gorgeous handmade theatre dresses.

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Comments

  1. Jo, those flowers are gorgeous! I especially love the 2nd picture with all the purples, and then the longer picture. What a delight to the eyes!

    The gowns are very lovely too... it sounds like you have had a wonderful week with the book fair and now this!

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  2. Sigh...just lovely!
    My hubby would not like the flowers and dresses either though.

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  3. Hello! Oh how lovely dresses you have hear! I luuuv those old and very beautiful ones <3

    Love,
    Thea (Teija) from Finland

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  4. I would love to go...maybe one year I'll get there, glad you enjoyed it for me

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  5. Absolutely beautiful Jo, wish I was there. Fall has it's beauties, but I must admit I prefer the hopefulness of spring over the melancholy of autumn. LL Nick

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  6. Fabulous, fabulous photos - absolutely beautiful! Can't believe you are entering spring - how I wish we were instead of fall and then - WINTER!! The tulips there are breathtaking and your pictures have captured the essence of spring in a beautiful way. Bravo - a lovely post my friend!

    Vicki

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  7. oooooh! I LOVE these pics! Flowers are like a little piece of heavenly beauty, I think. Such vibrant colours and such prettiness! You did so well to get these pics without people in them! Maybe one year I'll try to make it down there to see this, it is just gorgeous! :)

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  8. I was thinking of you the other day when I saw a news item about this on TV. Sad to say I've never made it down there yet!
    The flowers are absolutely beautiful!

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