It’s a delicate flower that requires care for almost 44 weeks of the year – nursery staff can attest that countless hours go into the preparation of Ballarat’s popular begonia display.
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Sheree Blood and Erin Brennan have been growing begonias for almost 20 years for the City of Ballarat.
The Robert Clark Conservatory at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens will be transformed to a bright and colourful space this week as the pair work alongside fellow nursery and garden staff to the create the display for this year’s Begonia Festival.
Around 500 begonias out of a 1700 City of Ballarat collection will be brought into the conservatory for public display until the end of April.
Ballarat Botanical Gardens curator Peter Marquand said Ballarat had grown begonias since the early 1900s and had one of the largest collections of the flower in the world.
“It is very special. It has been such a long history of growing begonias at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens. Even in the late 1800s the curators on this site were growing begonias and exhibiting them in a horticulture display,” he said.
Wacth the video below to hear from Ballarat gardeners Sheree Blood and Erin Brennan
Work on the begonia exhibition first begins in September when the flowers are potted and grown in the garden’s hot house. They are re-potted in January and begin to bloom around four weeks before the Begonia Festival.
“We stake them, we disbud them and we take the female flowers off so that the male flowers can grow bigger,” Ms Brennan said.
“Each day we go through the whole 1700 and check them for watering,” Ms Blood said.
“The festival is what you work for, you want them to look their best. People come from all over the world to see them. It really makes you feel like you are doing something special.”
Each season can provide new challenges for even the most experienced growers.
Mr Marquand said the drought period was a challenging period for staff at the Botanical Gardens, but the team worked hard to ensure the begonia display would go ahead.
“During the drought we had no water, we had nothing in our garden beds, yet we still had a conservatory full of begonias,” he said.
“The festival was almost like a statement of our survival.”
The begonia display can be viewed at the Robert Clark Conservatory during the Begonia Festival from 10 am to 5pm on March 10, 11 and 12. The display will be open until the end of April.
Talks will be held at the conservatory at 11am and 2pm on weekdays for those who are interested in learning more about begonias.
READ MORE ABOUT THE BEGONIA FESTIVAL:
Rochelle Kirkham
Rochelle covers court and has a particular interest in social issues including homelessness, food security and family violence.
Rochelle covers court and has a particular interest in social issues including homelessness, food security and family violence.
