South Africa: Drought forces Cape flower show to dump flowers

A severe drought has led to the cancellation of the 2017 Clanwilliam Wild Flower Show.

The Flower Show would have taken place from 25 August to 2 September.

“It is with a heavy heart that we eventually decided to cancel the show. The extreme drought that the whole country is experiencing is the cause of the very late blooming of the flowers and plants. We don’t have enough flowers to build the displays for the show‚” said Alida Stone‚ chairperson of the Clanwilliam Flower Show committee.

Annually about 400 different species of freshly cut flowers and plants are used during the festival for the colourful displays that can be seen in the historic church in the town.

“We could not go ahead with the flower show. This year the flowers are struggling and we only pick when abundant‚ in keeping with conservation. Conservation is still our main priority‚” Stone said.

According to Rika du Plessis‚ conservation manager of Cape Nature Cederberg‚ the rainfall figure for the first seven months of this year is the worst since 1953 (64 years).

“The average rainfall measured at Algeria Forestry Station is 724 mm per year. Last year it was 545 mm and if we continue with the rain pattern that we are currently experiencing‚ we won’t even reach 300 mm by the end of this year‚” Du Plessis said in a statement.

According to Stone‚ all the other activities will still go ahead for the week of the festival. There will be music shows‚ art competitions‚ hiking trails as well as stalls where a variety of products will be on sale.

Source: www.timeslive.co.za

Publication date: Thu 10 Aug 2017