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November 7, 2024

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Chrysanthemum Festival draws hordes of admirers

By Wu Huixin | 00:00 UTC+8 November 7, 2024 | Print Edition

The annual Yangtze Delta Chrysanthemum Festival at the Hangzhou Botanical Garden is attracting horticulturists and locals alike.

This year, the festival is being co-hosted by more than 40 organizations and departments from Zhejiang, Henan and Jiangsu provinces, as well as Shanghai. Specialists across the country view the festival as an opportunity to exchange knowledge about cultivation and floral arrangements.

The event aims to promote the urban greening and gardening design sector by creating landscapes with chrysanthemums.

To increase the number of attendees at the floral display, organizers have put up five subvenues in Shangcheng, Qiantang, Xiaoshan and Lin’an districts, as well as Jiande County.

The event also allows floral arrangement and cultivation experts from across the country to share their knowledge. Garden designers have placed potted flowers to reflect the unique characteristics of each district or county.

The flower arrangement at Shangcheng District is inspired by the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) ink-wash painting “Butterflies Flying Among Chrysanthemums (菊丛飞蝶图)” and porcelain bowls with chrysanthemum pattern.

Shangcheng District once served as the site of the imperial palace and royal court palaces. Today, it preserves cultural heritage that represents the pinnacle of ancient beauty and gardening.

Flower arrangements from the Southern Song era frequently have a quiet ambiance rather than extravagant floral designs. As old artworks and archives show, ancient Song people frequently employed a branch and a chrysanthemum to suggest the delicate aesthetics of solitude.

Designers from Xiaoshan District drew inspiration from local watertowns, integrating intangible cultural heritage silk parasols with around 5,000 potted chrysanthemums.

The main venue at the botanical garden also boasts 16 unique design themes.

For instance, designers have merged the tales of Aladdin and Nasreddin with floral arrangements in the ancient Silk Road segment, illustrating the botanical exchanges between China and various nations.

A stunning collection of 46,000 mum pots with 600 unique domestic and international varieties are showcased at the botanical garden during the festival.

The flowers are displayed in baskets, topiary, bonsai, and cascading arrangements. The highlight is the riverside, lined by pots of Xuanya chrysanthemums that resemble small, flowing waterfalls.

In addition to spider and pompom variants, visitors can observe irregularly curved forms with a large head, surrounded by layers of ray florets that form a “skirt.” Yangtze Delta horticulturists mostly grew these flowers, demonstrating the latest findings.

The exhibition promotes cultural and horticultural knowledge related to chrysanthemums, as well as showcasing the flowers themselves. Organizers will hold a floral arrangement and gardening design competition during the expo.

Wandering around blossoming chrysanthemums was a favorite autumn pastime for ancient Chinese. The Chinese consider chrysanthemums one of the “four gentlemen” of plants, along with orchids, plum blossoms and bamboo. Scholars painted chrysanthemums to convey their noble goals and love for high-minded thoughts.

Chrysanthemums were first cultivated as a herb in China around the 15th century BC, with records indicating the existence of over 500 varieties by 1630. Today, people in China continue to brew dried chrysanthemum flowers to rejuvenate their bodies and eliminate internal toxins.

The flowers thrive in full sunlight, which influences the life cycles of plants. The soil should be kept moist but well-drained to prevent it from becoming too damp.

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