It's that time of the year again, when an epic public event in Canberra displays the latest collections in runway shows to the public, influencing upcoming backyard garden trends for the approaching flower season. Floriade 2022. It’s the Paris Fashion Week for flowers.
Canberra's annual spring flower show at Floriade showcases millions of flowers in bloom. It's the time when locals come out from their wintertime Jerusalem artichoke patches and tourists bus in en masse to the city centre to see the latest collections, which run for a month across September/October.
It’s a Saturday afternoon, and the ready-to-smell flowers greet me as I walk in one of the gates, as do the friendly volunteers, while also fulfilling their role of walking information and advice bureaus. While it is not explicitly posted at the gate that advises the house rules, it is strongly encouraged that you take endless photos wherever possible.
At the gate, there are tulips mounted in tough steel wheelbarrows, but it’s true what they say about tulips; they can look good in a garbage bag or a wheelbarrow. It’s overcast but these flowers do not need a blue sky setting to be the centre of attention. Indeed, the inclement weather has done not a thing to dull their joyfulness.
All the famed flowers are here. Tulips - the darling, the Dior of this assembly of florae – is the star of the show, bursting colourfully from bunches, wheelbarrows, garden beds and across all the merchandise of bags, clothing and anything else you could imagine, very ably accompanied by the equally pretty supporting troupe of flowers.
Before wandering around, I grab a coffee from a delightful teal and white café caravan and sit at their tables that are sheltered by giant black and white striped umbrellas. I hear what I determine is Australian country music that has my foot tapping as I watch one of the tulip runways near me that runs between the garden beds.
The tulips are the perfect models, the garden beds are their catwalk, and the red carpet makes way for a red gravel runway.
And this runway is busy! A young woman runs back to her spot in front of the tulips and other blooming assortments before her professional-looking camera equipment featuring tripod snaps a photo without her in it. A family of ten poses in front of some the gardens. Some have come in their favourite vibrant colour, some are dressed up, there are no rules to be followed with colour coding, but it seems brighter is a widespread choice. Teenagers take selfies. Adults take selfies. Everyone is taking selfies. If dogs were allowed entry they would be prancing through the garden beds and then taking selfies.
Fine art enthusiasts and Instagram devotees get right up close and personal to the delicate models on their stems with their iPhone, and then do another shot with the ferris wheel in the background. And then do it all over again until the shot is precise. Close-ups, distance shots, analysis of the colours, the textures, fine scrutiny of the structure of the stems (okay, that was a child who then received a lecture full of disappointment from his mother).
There is not an angle or perspective that wasn’t explored on that runway, and I wonder how many of the striking blooms were digitally altered before their debut on social media to friends appearing more contoured, more vibrant. I think back to the day, before smart phones, when we just stopped to smell the flowers rather than photograph and edit them for social media. They don’t need more contouring or airbrushing, but I guess it doesn’t hurt local tourism.
Meanwhile, over at Paris Fashion Week, Victoria Beckham's Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear Collection has dropped, and the fashion designer has been seen around that town in fashion inspired by...tulips from Canberra's Floriade perhaps? Colours sells, and tulips know it.
