This weekend will be the last chance to visit the 62nd Kifissia Flower Show in the northern suburb of Athens, which returned to Kifissia Park on May 5 this year, though the weather threatens to be gloomy right through to Sunday, the last day of the show.
This year’s fair, in addition to being a celebration of spring and the beauties of nature, was also dedicated to children, with a host of activities and events aimed at younger visitors in the programme.
On Friday, these include the activity “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”, a talk on the importance of seeds and the need for their protection, a children’s play entitled “You can. I can!” and a concert by ‘Los Latinos’ and. The programme on Saturday includes double sessions of the children’s interactive theatre “Hocus Pocus” and the children’s game “Planet Agents”, as well as children’s chess and the band “Muchatrela”. The last day of the flower show on Sunday will close with a treasure hunt, face painting, story-telling, a morning workshop on traditional games using natural materials, a talk on the social economy in the agricultural and food sector and a concert by the reggae band ‘Quilombo’ before the official closing ceremony.
In addition to the various events, the flower show featured the usual cornucopia of colours and fragrances, with plants and flowers of every variety on sale, as well as stalls for gardening equipment and other products. One of the highlights of this year’s show – and one expected to trigger a few thrills and shivers down the spine in younger visitors – is the section on carnivorous plants that attract and partly feed on insects and other small creatures.
According to Apostolis Zerkoulis, one of the exhibitors of carnivorous plants at the show, these plants use insects as their “fertilizer”, trapping them and slowly digesting them with enzymes to extract nutrients.
“In their sacs there is a little rain water with some enzymes that they secrete and essentially drown the insects. Then they start to break them down and this is their food,” he said. He said that the Greek climate was good for such plants but not necessarily the country’s chlorinated water, noting that they needed deionised water and shady surroundings to thrive.
Zerkoulis said that Greece also had its own local varieties of carnivorous flowers on some Greek mountains, which were usually found growing next to waterfalls.
The full programme in Greek can be found at the website www.kifissiaflowershow.gr.
Source:ANA-MPA
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