8th March 2010

Flower Show a feast for the senses from the entrances

Visitors to this year’s Ellerslie International Flower Show will find it is a feast for the senses from when they first step through the entrance.

City Care has designed and will install colourful floral displays at the entrances to the 15th Ellerslie International Flower Show which opens to the public this Wednesday 10 March.

Raised bedding platforms, shaped like a leaf and measuring 21.2 square metres, have been installed at both the Harper Avenue and Armagh Street entrances. Each isplanted with 2500 plants.

City Care’s Divisional Manager – Parks, Craig Taylor says Alyssum, Salvia and Lobelia plants supplied by Zealandia Horticulture will be used in the bedding display. “The plants will be layered, beginning with white, red and then blue, the beds rising to a peak of about one metre high.

“As the gardener to the Garden City, City Care wanted to extend the Show’s experience to the entrance gates, helping to welcome people to the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest garden event,” he says.

“City Care has been maintaining Christchurch’s parks, reserves, gardens and waterways since 1999, providing residents with attractive living and recreational environments. Part of this work is installing and maintaining all the bedding displays throughout the city. We are proud to be able to showcase this work at Ellerslie by dressing up the entrances.”

Mr Taylor says City Care is committed to working with Christchurch to build a better environment and promote the Garden City image. “Our involvement with the 2010 Ellerslie International Flower Show, for the second consecutive year, is a great way for us to help achieve this objective and celebrate Christchurch’s position as the Garden City.”

• Ellerslie International Flower Show is New Zealand’s premier week-long Garden Party in Christchurch’s North Hagley Park from 10 to 14 March 2010. The Show celebrates Christchurch’s Garden City heritage and the best of national and international garden design. Check out the website for further information www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz

For further information contact:
Ellerslie International Flower Show Communications Adviser
Jan McCarthy
03 941 6412 or 027 637 7912