This morning my best friend and I went down to the convention centre where the Flower Festival is being held. I’m so glad I have a friend who is interested in flowers, since I imagine it would be quite lonely being unable to share my hobbies with anybody. Gardening is the kind of hobby you can do alone, but I really enjoy showing people my work, since the flowers are beautiful and they deserve to be seen.
Even in the early hours of the morning, the convention centre was bustling with people setting up their flower stalls for the day. I walked past a fragrant hybrid tea rose for sale and could only imagine how long it took that gardener to cultivate such a delightful smell. Those are the kinds of flowers that would brighten up any room you put them in, and they’re always a favourite at the Flower Festival for that very reason.
I don’t have a stall at the festival, but I had to arrive early this morning anyway to scout a location for my sculpture. The second part of the competition involves building a sculpture made from flowers, all while judges watch. I’ve never done it before, but I can imagine how nerve-wracking it must be. There’s even a live audience of people walking past as they move throughout the convention centre.
This morning I could see a huge stack of thornless roses being brought into the centre in a large truck. They were transported straight to the sculpture-making hall, since we have to use thornless roses for safety reasons. It’s a good thing, too, as knowing me I would probably accidentally prick myself and have to forfeit the competition. I decided to be strategic about my sculpture’s location. You didn’t want to be too close to the doors, since a lot of people walked through those and they can often get in the way, however, you didn’t want to be too far back, since then the audience wouldn’t be able to see you properly. I wanted to be directly in the eye line of the judges.