Yes, that really is a full size elephant made of flowers!
The Haarlem Annual Flower Parade or the Bloemen Corso as it is known locally is a spectacular display of floral wizardry. With a cavalcade of twenty elaborate floats and thirty attractively decorated luxury cars, the event is replete with the vibrant splendour of superskilled floristry. Every year hundreds of thousands of flower enthusiasts from around the world flock to the 40 kilometre route from Noordwijk to Haarlem, just to experience this sensational event and to be treated to a stunning exhibition of flower craft, bands and costumed participants. Each year a different theme is adopted for the parade and florists recreate these themes by carefully arranging the fresh blooms to reflect those themes.
This year’s procession, which passes through the flower bulb regions of Voorhout, Sassenheim, Lisse, Hillegom and Bennebroek, was last week. As with every year, the procession was preceded by an illuminated display of beautifully decorated floats in Noordwijk and remained on view after the parade in Haarlem until 7.00 PM the following day. Interestingly, the theme for this years parade was “holiday”. Merel & Marion, the senior florists of our Dutch sister site, Arena Bloemen, participated in this year’s event and won two awards for the incredible floral elephant float pictured below.
Merel and Marion won the second prize for flower arrangements and the overall Public Award. Marion is pictured receiving the award. Visit the Bloemen Corso website for more pictures of the parade. Congratulations to Merel and Marion. Truly amazing work!
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