WORLD NEWS 6
NETHERL ANDS
Dutch Corsos added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) The coveted UNESCO status aims at safeguarding the Corso practice, its intrinsic values, knowledge and skills. A Corso (which derives from the Italian Corso or avenue) is a parade of floats (or boats) decorated with flowers, fruit, vegetables and, in some cases, people in costumes. Bands and performers often accompany the parade. A Corso is a competition: the float judged best by the jury wins a prize. Typical Corsos use flowers, including tulips, hyacinths and daffodils in the spring and dahlias in August and September. There is also a fruit Corso held in Tiel. Many corsos also feature vegetables, reeds, bark, grass, seeds, plants and other decorative flowers. Dutch corsos are not afraid of rejuvenating themselves; 1997 saw the inaugural edition of Varend Corso; a floral flotilla that each year sails through Westland, Midden-Delfland, Schiedam, Vlaardingen, Maassluis, Rijswijk, The Hague and the beautiful city of Delft. Corsos occur worldwide, but ‘Corso culture’ is at its strongest in the Netherlands. About 30 different parades are held annually in the country, of various sizes and characters. There are very small, local parades, but the Netherlands also hosts the world’s longest flower parades. Some also take place
FLORACULTURE INTERNATIONAL
JANUARY 2022
at night and are illuminated. The biggest parades have floats that are 20 metres long and 10 metres high, often with moving parts. One float can contain up to 500,000 dahlia flowers. Hundreds of volunteers decorate each float with flowers during the last hectic days before the parade. Corso culture is about much more than the parade alone. Groups of friends or communities often spend months preparing their floats. Having a drink or meal together after working on the floats and organising regular parties is an integral part of it all. The sense of social cohesion and contributing to a feeling of solidarity is often people’s main reason for taking part. Each Corso has its construction groups or neighbourhoods which build floats and plant and maintain flower fields together. The size of these groups varies from ten or so people to several hundred. In the Netherlands, an estimated 75,000 volunteers are actively involved in the parades. Corso events in the past have attracted more than 1,500,000 visitors from the Netherlands and abroad every year. An estimated 2,000,000 viewers watch live broadcasts.
Mikaël Mercier won the Garden Retail Personality of the Year. FRANCE
Celebrating the best in French garden retail at the 36th Graines d’Or French media company Media Jardin Groupe J announced the 2021 Graines d’Or Awards winners during a glittering awards ceremony at the Hôtel InterContinental Paris le Grand on 2 December. The 36th edition of the awards saw multiple garden retailers and retailing giants accepting awards in different categories, with garden centre chain Trufaut reigning supreme in many categories. Outgoing Val’Hor president Mikaël Mercier won the Personality of the Year award. Hosting the awards was Carole Tolila, who, together with Stéphane Marie, presents France’s popular television gardening and advice show Silence ça Pousse. Tolila invited Media Jardin Groupe J director Jean Michel Joannes to explain why his prepared speech about togetherness had become less reasonable hour by hour. “Amid concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, three major garden centres chains have cancelled tonight’s participation in the ceremony, and others followed suit.” Joannes said he dearly missed their presence and thanked all contestants for their hard work and achievements. Subsequently, Tolila presented awards in different categories, with the Truffaut name mentioned several times. In the garden centre buyers of garden materials and garden centre buyers of garden decoration materials, Truffaut ’s purchasers Serge Briet and Philippe Gibert won the first prize. Briet also earned the overall title of Garden Centre Buyer of the Year.
Outgoing Val’Hor President and a grower of acidophilic plants in Guiclan (Brittany) Mikaël Mercier won the Garden Retail Personality of the Year award. Putting the seal on a year of exceptional professional achievement and in recognition for his hard work, perseverance and determination with which he guided France’s ornamental horticulture industry through the pandemic. Val Hor’s newly elected President Catherine Muller took to the stage to present Truffaut with the Garden Centre of the Year award in the living plants category. Muller said that every winner is a credit to ornamental horticulture in France. She adds, this year France was blooming in a film starring Catherine Frot, who plays a rose breeder in La Fine Fleur, the movie that premiered in June this year. Finally, for the 13th consecutive year, the Graines d’Or grand prize went to Truffaut, which shared the award with Jardiland as both companies finished ex aequo – equal footing.
