Broccoli or ???

Judging by the huge TV ratings reported in the nation's press, viewers of the recent Olympic Games held in Vancouver must have included all of Canada's gardeners as well as all of its jocks!
But one of the most puzzling questions for gardeners was the story behind those green bouquets handed to the winners during the Games. What were the bouquets composed of and where did they come from? For the answers to those questions, we were referred to canadianfloristmag.com, a website that provided both a botanical and a humanitarian background.

One of the criteria used by the Olympic authorities in selecting the design of the bouquets was that the plants be native to Canada. The plants used for the bouquets in Vancouver included green hypericum berries, green spider mums, ferns and grasses. Although these plants do grow naturally in British Columbia in the summer months, they had to be imported from environmentally friendly farms in Ecuador for the February games. But the provenance of these bouquets also includes a larger and more compelling, human-interest story.

According to the website hosted by Canadian Florist, the designers who won the contest stated that " All of the flowers and greens will be carefully hand selected and shaped into the bouquets by marginalized women, who may be recovering from addiction, leaving prison, exiting the sex trade, or who have been victims of violence, as well as by other women they train with who are changing careers to become florists. " That program is the outgrowth of an earlier project begun by one of the designers over 20 years ago. For the 2010 Winter Olympics, 27 people were employed in producing 1800 bouquets under the direction of the designers. Such an achievement seems to call for a medal of its own.

To read the full story, click on the following website : http://www.canadianfloristmag.com/content/view/2886/57/

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