BELGIUM: Visitors wowed by huge flower display at 18th century Belgian castle

A period castle in Belgium opens its doors to a colourful flower carpet for a weekend that looks to break the grey weather of the last weeks of summer. On Friday (August 24), preparations were in full swing for a flower carpet at the 18th century castle of Seneffe, in Belgium's francophone Wallonia. Some 200,000 begonias are used to make up a pattern, based on Chinese motifs featured in the castle.They will cover the courtyard which is over 1,200 square metres big. It took volunteers eleven hours to finish the flower carpet which will last for around 3 days. The Begonia Tubereux is a resistant sort of Begonia which comes from the city of Lochristie, in the region of Gent, in Flanders. Flower carpet designer Mark Schauttet has been laying flowers since the 1970s. He is also responsible for designing the flower carpet twice a year at the Grande Place in the Belgian capital Brussels. He says the reason they use begonias over any other flower is because they retain so much water which means they can last longer. "It's a unique sort of flower for the flower carpet because you need a 90 percent humidity that's while we use them. And it stays there three or four days and its also big, there's a lot of colour in there so it's really joyful working with Begonias," said Schauttet. Begonias are typical for Belgium. The flower owes its name to Michel Begon, the governor of Haiti, who brought it to Great Britain in the 17th century. It was then introduced to Belgium where it was first used as a pot plant. By the 19th century horticulturist Louis Van Houtte started using begonias in his flower beds and this led to the wider cultivation of begonias in East Flanders. The special quality of this flower is that it survives very well in bad weather and strong sunshine which makes it a perfect candidate for open-air flowers carpets. The 'chinoiserie' theme was chosen in honour of count Depestre, an 18th century merchant who commissioned the building of the castle in which he had a lounge dedicated to the Chinese style . Shauttet says the bad weather in the last few weeks was worrying but he expects it to improve over the weekend. More rain would have meant less visitors. The organisers expect about 40,000 visitors this weekend.

ITN Source | September 2, 2007

Tags:. .improve. .doors. .august. .reason. .strong