Carpet flowers. Floral carpet in brussels

Once every two years in Brussels in August, the central square of the Grand Place is covered with a floral carpet. The carpet does not lie long, only 4-5 days, and decorates the main square of the city in front of the municipality building.

Photos by Peter Ushanov

grown in Belgium great amount begonias. Dozens or even hundreds of millions of pieces a year. 80% of flowers are exported. Begonia is a fairly hardy plant with bright multi-colored flowers.

In 1971, they decided to lay out a carpet in the central square of Brussels to show the beauty of begonias and, at the same time, draw attention to them. The carpet was called "Ornemental Arabesques" ("Decorative Arabesques"). The next carpet - "Parks and Gardens" ("Parks and Gardens") - was arranged in the Belgian capital three years later, in 1976. Then there were 1979, 1980, 1986, and then this holiday began to be held regularly every two years in even years (1988 , 1990 etc.).

A colorful evening on a gloomy day ... now the sky will shine and compete in beauty with the carpet

The carpet is made from cut flowers of begonias. About 300 flowers are required per square meter. Because cut begonias cannot lie in the open air for a long time, all preparatory operations have to be done very quickly. Flowers are cut on the same day, packed in large boxes and delivered to the Grand Place, where they are laid in a carpet on the same day. A huge number of volunteers are invited to all these works.

Last year the area of ​​the carpet was 1800 square meters. Africa was chosen as the theme. The carpet featured tribal patterns from Ethiopia, Congo, Nigeria, Botswana and Cameroon. The design of the carpet is prepared in a couple of years. The fact is that you need to choose the colors of the patterns and grow right amount corresponding begonias.

Why Africa? The organizers wanted to draw attention to this region full of interesting places, unusual tribes, their traditions.

There is one significant problem with the carpet - how to see it in its entirety? Walking around the perimeter does not give the full picture. AT certain time You could climb the City Hall. Luckily, we managed to stay until dark. Unfortunately, the buildings on the right side of the square (relative to this frame) were under restoration, so I didn't take a full panorama of the square.

Floral carpet is not everything. Every evening at 10:00 pm, 10:30 pm and 11:00 pm there was a "light show", and on the opening night there was also a "fireworks"...

The light show with African music was strange...

And as for the fireworks at the opening, it was terrible. It all started with a Bengal fire, very caustic and very bright:

And the minute grassroots fireworks managed to burn through the clothes, backpacks and singe the hair of the audience. Of course, if it flies out from behind and directly overhead ...

Well, a lot of smoke, behind which nothing was visible.

If you suddenly find yourself in Belgium in the second half of August next year, then it’s worth stopping by to look at the carpet. But the opening ceremony can be safely skipped.

View of the carpet from the King's House (aka the Bread House):

Well, a little about the procedure for creating a carpet. As I said, cut begonias are delivered in large boxes (for some reason from bananas) to the Grand Place on the same day. There is already a marked substrate on the square (it looks like cellophane), on which volunteers begin to lay flowers. The whole process takes about 6 hours. To prevent the flowers from drying out too quickly, they are watered periodically.

Volunteers and reporters That's all for today.

Fireworks and a light show opened the traditional flower carpet on the main square of Belgium.
But before the lights soared into the sky, over a carpet of 700,000 begonias and dahlias, a hundred volunteers worked for half a day.
The spectacle is very beautiful, repeating every two years.

For the first time I saw a carpet of fresh flowers in 2010 - I really liked it, so I decided to return to Brussels again to look at the updated version of the floral patterns

I don’t want to invent anything, so for information I’ll just quote the ITAR-TASS message :)

The main square of Brussels, the Grand Place, was covered with a carpet of more than 700,000 flowers. The creation of a flower carpet is a traditional event that takes place in the Belgian capital every two years for five days in August. This year main theme Africa has become a holiday.

The picturesque landscapes rich in colors of Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria and Ethiopia were taken as a basis. According to the organizers of the flower meadow, the black continent differs from the rest of the world in its cultural diversity and vibrant nature. The authors of the composition decided to emphasize the contrast between Europe and Africa.

It took months of work to prepare a living carpet with an area of ​​1.8 thousand square meters, dozens of landscape architects and more than a hundred volunteers were involved. According to the organizers, there are 300-500 flowers per meter of exposure. The main element of the coating has traditionally been begonia, the beauty of which this year was diluted with specially brought from South America anthuriums.

3. The work is rather painstaking - they try to lay the flowers as tightly as possible so that they retain moisture longer. Looking ahead, I’ll say that the carpet looked fresh for no more than a day, because by the evening of the second day, the flowers, which had lain without water all day in the intense heat, had already begun to darken around the edges.

4. As always, there are at least two official photographers for every three employees :)
And how many unofficial (like me) pressed the button that day - it's impossible to count.

5. And this is how the flower carpet looked in ready-made. This photo was taken the next morning from the balcony of the so-called "King's House", in which the kings, by the way, never lived, and which now houses the city's museum.

6. In the end, I got tired of staring at the begonias, and I decided to take a walk along the nearby streets. Watching people was much more interesting - some ate something, and the rest drank with pleasure :)

7. ...Can you tell me how to get to the library? :) Or rather, to the "champagne library" (approximately this option was given to me by a google translator when I didn’t have enough imagination to translate the word Champagnothèque :) This lady sat for a long time table, doing painstaking bibliographic research :)

8. And this gentleman, without any frills, used more democratic, but no less tasty Belgian beer :)

9. Could I walk past a portrait of the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn?

10. ... and then the beauties of Marilyn in the next window :)

11. Photography lovers will understand what made me take this point-blank shot :)
The lucky owner of the Leica still didn’t see anything around except the subject :)

12. And the subject, here it is - "a trumpeter blows copper." One of the musicians of the orchestra that rocked at the opening of the show

13. And then the lights were turned on in the square and the flower carpet began to sparkle with new colors.

14.

15. By the way, we immediately noticed that the pyrotechnics on the field is too close to the audience. But still, we did not expect that burning pieces would fly on our heads after the first volleys. We got off with burnt clothes and backpacks, but it could have been worse!

16.

17. The next morning...

18. I don’t like diagonal angles, but what could I do - the spire of the city hall did not fit into the frame in any way :)

19. Photo on the background - sometimes it is called a crossbow :))

I still have a lot of pictures from this trip to Belgium (after all, on the second day I went to Ghent, and in Brussels I went to my favorite Magritte museum and a bunch of exhibitions). But that's in the next post...

A stunning flower spectacle traditionally takes place in the central square of the Belgian capital once every two years, in August. This spectacular Festival of Flowers attracts a huge number of flower lovers to Brussels beautiful plants and connoisseurs of beauty.

The history of the flower festival in Brussels spans several decades. His chronicle says that the first flower carpet was the work of E. Stautemans - an architect and landscape painter, landscape designer.

This master came up with and began to embody similar flower arrangements in the early fifties of the last century. But at that time these works were very simple and relatively small flower "rugs". They were composed mainly of begonias and presented to the public in different cities- in Knok (Knokke), in San Nicolas (Sint-Niklaas), in Lille (Lille).

E. Stautemans realized from demonstrations of his floral creations that colorful flower rugs attract a lot of attention and are a success. In addition, demonstrations of such compositions actively stimulate the mass cultivation and sale of begonias, which the designer loves and constantly uses in his work.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that E. Stautemans chose begonias as the main material for “writing out” the patterns of the floral carpet. After all, it is very elegant and plentiful. flowering plants with simple, semi-double or double flowers rich palette.

Simply gorgeous and widely used in landscaping tuberous begonias with their huge flowers that look like roses, peonies or carnations. BUT hybrid begonias Elatior for the abundance of flowering and elegant framing of large inflorescences beautiful leaves popularly called "bouquet in a pot."

It is no coincidence that one of the popular and unpretentious begonias received the specific Latin name "always flowering", or "ever flowering begonia". In addition, the purple leaves that many varieties of the ever-flowering begonia flaunt make the bush attractive even in the short intervals between successive flowering waves. And in many other types of begonias, not only numerous flowers are beautiful, but also their spectacular mosaic-painted, bright leaves.

The flower festival in Brussels has been counting its history since 1971. Then for the first time the cobblestones of the main square of the Belgian capital were patterned with thousands of flowers.

Many people liked the tradition of creating an unusual flower carpet in Brussels. Similar carpets began to appear in cities different countries(for example, in Amsterdam, in Hamburg, in London, in Paris). But the carpets of the Belgian flower masters, traditionally created in Brussels, have never been equal in beauty and elegance of workmanship.

The floral ornament “woven” on Brussels Square with the help of living plants is never repeated. Truly, there is no limit to the imagination of artists and flower craftsmen! A huge number of Brussels residents and guests of Belgium come here to admire the exquisite floral tapestry during the Festival of Flowers, especially coming here for this enchanting spectacle.

Preparation for such a grandiose action often begins a year before the performance itself, sketches and materials are being prepared. Now the creators are not limited to static models, but use various rotating platforms, fountains. The composition of the material for a living masterpiece includes not only begonias, but also turf, tree bark and flowers of other species.

On the day of the beginning of the laying of the flower carpet from the fields of plant-producing enterprises, required amount flowers of the desired color. Flower cut is promptly transported to Brussels. Fresh flowers that arrived at the square are stacked by craftsmen according to a pre-made sketch in accordance with the design drawing.
Those elements of the picture where greenery should be present are skillfully laid out in emerald lawn grass. The dark elements of the flower picture are created using dry, finely chopped tree bark.

Flowers and other elements of the floral pattern are placed directly on the cobbled square, so the living floral carpet is short-lived. Unfortunately, plants retain their freshness and attractiveness for only a few days, and then wither ...

But the joy of contemplating this man-made beauty, vivid impressions are forever preserved in the hearts of the participants of the Flower Festival. Countless photos of the Brussels flower carpet are flying around the world.

Basically, visitors to the festival admire the flowers and take pictures of the flower carpet, passing along the metal fences along its perimeter. But the most best view on the square decorated with flowers opens from the balcony of the city hall, open to visitors during the holidays. Those wishing to admire the floral tapestry spreading below from the balcony pay 3 euros, but this amazing sight is worth it!

At dusk, the flower carpet is illuminated by spotlights. And then the huge pattern of flowers illuminated from the darkness looks especially charming, creating the impression of unreality and magic.

Short, but so bright and grandiose, the Brussels Flower Festival is one of the original " business cards» the capital of Belgium.

Brussels Flower Carpet is a special event that takes place every 2 years.

The festivities begin on the evening of August 12, and a carpet of flowers appears before the guests and residents of Brussels on the morning of August 13, and remains open until the 15th. Entrance here is free, you can freely view and photograph this miracle. And for 3 euros you can climb onto the roof of one of the buildings and get a panoramic view of the bright riot of flowers and the Grand Place

Usually more than 700,000 colors are used to plant such a carpet.

Can choosing a carpet be like visiting flower shop? Modern technologies made it a reality! Just imagine: you are surrounded by roses and gerberas, zinnias and carnations, hydrangeas and peonies, poppies and sunflowers. You notice that all flowers are beautiful, but some are so eye-catching that you will take them with you ...

Romantics still like floral motifs on carpets, just like 50 and 100 years ago. On modern carpets, flowers are most often depicted in a stylized form, in the form of prints, and many well-known brands have such models.

But among this category of carpets there is a special caste that strikes the imagination with its unusual appearance. These are sculptural carpets in the form of a single flower or inflorescence. Their jagged petal edges, three-dimensional images and soft realistic transitions of subtle shades of color are a bold challenge to the traditional geometric shapes of carpets. The spectacle is truly magical, it surprises not only with its beauty, but with the feeling that you find yourself in a fairy tale.

Some of our readers will see such charming flower carpets for the first time and fall in love with them at first sight. But, it is quite possible that you are familiar with them. Nevertheless, you will agree: such models are quite rare.

But do you know that you can join the fascinating choice of such a carpet not only by the fact of originality, but also by shades and even by the appearance of the “flower”?! Re-read the first paragraph of this article: all the names of the colors listed there can be found today in the models of sculptural flower carpets.

But no description can compare with a personal impression. That is why we have found 2 online stores with the most impressive models. Those fabulous flower carpets that you previously could only see in photographs of other people's interiors can now settle in your own home!

Meet: incredible and delightful, charming in their thin lines and play of shades, amazing sculptural flower carpets from "Neiman Marcus" and "Touch of Class". May your dream of them come true!

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flower carpets in interiors:

They make excellent style and color accents. Such carpets will be a spectacular decoration for the living room and hall, bedroom and children's room. Sometimes these flower carpets are produced specifically for the bathroom. There are also variations in size: from very small to quite large. As for the cost, its range is very wide: from $70-130 to several thousand.

They look spectacular in any room. For example, the model "Neena Bloom" from the store "Touch of Class" is in the bedroom and in the living room.

And a few more examples, harmoniously selected according to color palette interior:

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flower carpets from "Neiman Marcus":

Known for its designer merchandise, this store doesn't have many of these rugs. But each model looks amazing, like a work of art. Prices (in rubles) - from 6000 to 35000 depending on the size.

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flower carpets from "Touch of Class":

American Supplier a large number beautiful and exclusive products. The variety in the models of such carpets is the maximum. In addition, most of the flower carpets presented in this store can be selected in your favorite shade.

Prices ($) - from 145 to 630 depending on the size and seasonal discounts (at the time of this writing, there is a discount of about 35% off the regular price list).