Cairo in bloom with 89th Spring Flowers Exhibition

The exhibition is open for visitors at Cairo's famed Orman Botanical Gardens until March 31

In the middle of one of Cairo’s busiest districts, horticulturalists snip, prune and preen their floral offerings, ready to impress visitors to the 89th Spring Flowers Exhibition.

One of Egypt’s most visited annual events, the exhibition brings together the country’s most prolific horticulturalists to exhibit their goods for excited clients.

The show has made Giza’s historic Orman Botanical Garden its home since it was first launched officially as an annual event in 1934.

This year’s round of the show opened on March 1 and ends on March 31.

The show attracts a wide range of visitors, including families and young people, and exhibitors hope to convert those visits into sales. Many rely on the show to make their biggest sales of the year.

“I have been participating in the fair for the past 29 years, I have never missed a year,” Manzour Atya, an exhibitor, told The National.

“For me, the show is a hub for producers and specialists in plants to showcase their stuff. There are always new visitors and even if they don’t buy anything, they stop for a conversation and I get to pass on some of my knowledge in the field.”

The vibrancy of the exhibition’s stalls and the tranquillity of the 28-acre Orman Botanical Garden is in stark contrast to the busy, polluted streets of Cairo just outside the garden’s wrought iron gates.

For many of the show’s visitors, it is a reprieve from the imposing concrete jungle that is the Egyptian capital.

“A lot of the visitors just come to enjoy the atmosphere,” continued Atya. “I think a lot of people find meaning and fulfilment from being around so many colourful plants, many of which they don’t get to see elsewhere.”

Many of the fair’s exhibitors grow exotic plants that they bring to impress buyers at the exhibition. One grower specialises in Japanese bonsai trees, which can only be found in private gardens.

The exhibition continues to attract new visitors every year, many of whom are young adults who find out about it on social media.

However, for some of the show’s visitors, the main attraction is the Orman garden, which predates the show by over 50 years, having been built by Egypt’s former ruler Khedive Ismail in 1875. The original garden, which was part of Khedive’s palace, was much larger than it is today.

It was designed by renowned French landscaper Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps.

Tickets for the exhibition are available upon arrival for 10 Egyptian pounds ($0.64).