The Autumn Flowers Exhibition
15 November, 2015KHARTOUM (SUDANOW)—The Sudanese Horticulture Society and its partners have developed the habit of delivering joy, pleasure and change to visitors of the Flowers Exhibition that is held twice a year, one in spring (March) and another in autumn (November). It is regarded as the biggest green festival adorned with a wide variety of flowers of all kinds and the sounds of the gleeful sparrows with accompanying paintings and handicraft pieces and programmes of entertainment with vocalists taking part.
Several nurseries of universities, institutes, institutions, organizations, amateurs, owners of nurseries, décor designers, domestic designers, voluntary organizations and book exhibitors are taking part in this session of November.
The Society has been holding this exhibition since the Independence of Sudan for two weeks in the Botanic Garden which is considered a museum of plants in Sudan.
The Secretary of the Horticulture Society, Majid Mustafa Fadlullah, said his Society offers spaces of land to the exhibitors free of charge. It maintains external cooperation with a number of countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Syria with the latter training 20 persons each year and those countries exhibit their products each year, he said, describing the public attendance as excellent. He noted that the autumn flowers exhibition places special emphasis on the use of plants in the internal décor.
While moving around, we noticed vases in the place of uncle Fuad Gabbani, 80, from Omdurman. Coming closer to him, he welcomed us warmly and told us that he has been participating continuously in the Exhibition for 45 years since 1970. He is considered the oldest member of the Sudanese Horticulture Society. Before that, he used to come with his father who used to make mud vases, a job he inherited and decided to continue with this job after finishing the primary school.
"The Flowers Exhibition is my mother," said Uncle Fuad, adding that he is intimately linked with exhibitions.
Criticizing this autumn's Exhibition, Uncle Fuad said: "The exhibition was held in an unsuitable time. The plants have not fully grown for display and the people who are running the exhibition are in need of some organizational skills and the conditions for plant competition have been ignored."
It seems that Uncle Fuad was right, citing the story of monkeys which ate fruits that female students from the Islamic University of Omdurman, regular participants in the exhibition, had brought for display, giving evidence of the poor coordination by the organizers.
"People watch the serials but I'm preoccupied with my flowers," said Zainub Mohamed, 60, of Khartoum II, expressing her love and fondness for flowers. She has become interested in flowers since she was 10 and now she has a big home garden full of different kinds of flowers which she tends carefully. Zainub is a constant participant in the Exhibition from which she selects the latest and rare kinds of flowers, saying that flowers bring about happiness and joy to a person.
Ni'mat Abdul Salam, 45, a frequent visitor of the Exhibition, also owns a home garden and takes a special care of the flowers.
"The prices in the Exhibition are very high compared to the low prices in the nurseries, yet I have bought from the Exhibition," Ni'mat said, complaining that a single shade plant costs a hundred pounds, noting, however, that flowers "are so important that they should be available in every house because they bring about soul comfort and raise the morale."
Iptihal Ismail, 30, who works in Solara Nursery, explains that the shade plants are expensive because nursing them requires a long time and a great effort. We have noticed that she has beautiful plants, like the Klasia, which is a shade plant grows in regions of high humidity around the world.
However, the National Forests Corporation mitigates the high costs of the shade and fruit plants by fixing nominal prices to emphasize that its participation in the Exhibition is aimed at encouraging people to plant trees, as explained by Sara Khalid, Reem Mahjoub and Samah al-Hadi, who are in charge of the Corporation's pavilion.
Al-Tayeb Hassab al-Rasoul, a constant participant who exhibits books, said the Exhibition progresses for the better each year, adding that his exhibition contains books on flowers and agriculture in general.
The Flowers Exhibition differs from the other public occasions which attract certain groups of the community but as regards the beauty of the nature as reflected in the autumn flowers exhibition, one cannot identify who is more concerned- adults, teenagers, women or men- all of those are remarkably present in the Exhibition, they may have different impressions about the flowers, according to their age brackets, but all of them share appreciation of the flowers and their high aesthetic value.
In conclusion, compliments are extended to the Sudanese Horticulture Society which has contributed to creating a remarkable horticultural awareness among the Sudanese people. It is probably the leading civil society institution in persistence and survival and in offering what is beneficial to the society, as it has been established during the British colonial era in 1934 by a number of senior British and Sudanese officials of the Sudanese government.
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