Green Promotion/Initiatives

Hong Kong Flower Show

The Hong Kong Flower Show, held in Victoria Park from March 3 to 12, was a smashing success, attracting a patronage of over 510 000 people. The theme flower for this year's show was the Dianthus. In addition to over 90 species and cultivars of dianthus and other exotic flowers and plants from all over the world, visitors were treated to magnificent floral art displays by horticultural groups from Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas. In all, there was participation from more than 180 horticultural organisations, private firms and government departments from Hong Kong and Mainland China and Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The mosaic-like floral art display with the Olympic rings at the centre draws crowds of visitors at the Hong Kong Flower Show.

In addition to major attractions such as landscape features, floral arrangements, potted plants and bonsai displays, the Show also provided a wide range of educational and recreational fringe activities. These included horticultural talks, demonstrations of floral arrangements, musical performances, cultural presentations, exhibits, drawing and photo competitions, plant-care workshops and guided visits to promote interest in horticulture and the greening of Hong Kong.

Delightful musical performances provide alternative entertainment for patrons of the Hong Kong Flower Show.

Students concentrate on capturing the beauty of flowers in a drawing competition.

Green Hong Kong Campaign

Parallel with the Department's extensive planting programme to improve the cityscape, a series of educational and community involvement programmes was launched to promote a green culture in society and government departments. Over 2 700 greening activities were organised with 1 231 000 participants.

Under the community greening programme, Lotus Show 2006 was organised jointly with local association and held in Hong Kong Park in June and July 2006. In addition, over 160 outreaching greening promotional activities were organised which attracted over 22 000 participants.

The grace and serenity of the lotus are well chronicled in Chinese literature.

About 1 500 Green Volunteers who were recruited under the Green Volunteer Scheme in 18 districts carried out simple horticultural maintenance in parks and served as stewards in greening promotion activities.

The Community Garden Programme, which had been extended to 18 districts by the end of 2005, encourages the public to participate in greening activities at the community level and to adopt such practices as part of daily life. It is also designed to arouse public awareness of greening and environmental protection through participating in gardening activities. One community garden has been established in each district, and in 2006 a total of 40 gardening courses were organised with around 7 000 participants. Two green carnivals were also organised with around 15 000 participants.

Wong Shiu-wai, winner of the Best Harvest Award, pictured with his harvest from the Community Garden Programme at the Harvest Carnival in Kowloon Park.

The Best Landscape Award for Private Property Development was established to promote the betterment of living environments of private properties and in 2006 attracted over 230 private companies to participate.

The Department continued to work with District Councils and local communities to organise Community Planting Days. Twenty-seven events involving 8 000 participants were organised to plant around 200 trees and 28 600 shrubs.