Long Service Anniversaries IT WAS NOT the greatest way to see your work up in lights, but when Nathan Gray (right) saw anti-lockdown protestors picking up pot plants and throwing them at police in downtown Sydney, he had to smile. “It was a different way to get your work on the telly, that’s for sure,” says Nathan with a lopsided grin. Nathan and Citywide’s In Bloom Floral Displays team had to spend most of that chilly July night clearing up the mess that the vandals had made. But the five-strong team are used to hard work – and they’re certainly used to long nights. Nathan, who this year marked 15 years’ service with Citywide, is team leader of our In Bloom floral displays, where they work through nearly every night of the week to brighten the streets of Sydney’s CBD. Their displays may look like simple planter boxes, but in fact they’re part of a carefully coordinated horticultural science, which sees nearly 1,000 crates – each holding 25 meticulously pruned and arranged plants – strategically sited around Sydney at different times of the year. A riot of colour Early spring is the beginning of what Nathan calls In Bloom’s “hectic time”. It starts each year in the first week of September – “the busiest week of the year” – with the installation
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What We Do Matters December 2021
