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THE
Battle
of the Flowers
Timing your holiday right makes a tremendous
difference to the enjoyment of it.
If you plan to be in Jersey
in August) you can get caught up in
The Battle of the Flowers'. It is the
highlight of the summer season in the Channel Islands with a
parade of the magnificently decorated floral floats that
travel along the sea-front at Victoria Avenue. In addition to
the colourful creations entered by the twelve island parishes
you find show business stars taking part along with musicians,
dancers and clowns.
All over the island dedicated teams are
gearing themselves up for the last minute rush when millions
of locally grown blooms will be woven into intricate designs
to finish dozens of flower festooned floats. At this moment
the fantastic shapes are being painstaking covered with a base
of marram grass and hairstails.
In the middle of the island, in the parish of
St Peter, I called in for a bargain meal at the village
tea-shop. It’s a real community centre and behind it in a
massive three story high tent of scaffolding and polythene
they were working on entry.
As I entered I came
face to face with a dragon. It was a headless one, but a
painting above a notice board, that issued orders for an army
of helpers, showed that the finished work would depict a band
of Viking warriors feasting and drinking.
The whole
construction was 45ft long and 16ft 6 inches high and over
forty-four thousand flowers had still to be added to the ten
thousand hairstails already in place.
Ingenious and humorous ideas are being woven
with flowers into over thirty major floats. These range from
cats having a night on the tiles to ‘The Snowmans Party’
which is currently being prepared by ten year old Gary Edwards
and his friends.
This 12ft long float will be completed with
Chrysanthemums and is inspired by the story by Raymond Briggs,
in which a young boy builds a snowman that comes to life.
The Battle of the Flowers started back in 1902
to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII and has gone from strength to
strength. There have been a number of changes, for example
they no longer wreck the floats at the end of the parade but
use them again for another pageant.
After the Battle of the
Flowers with it’s superb atmosphere, noise colour you can
enjoy the Moonlight Parade. It takes place in the evening of
the following day and the exhibits of the previous day are
illuminated. It can be quite spectacular.
One intended innovation that didn't quite come
off was a plan to cover the parade with petals dropped from an
aeroplane. The first year it was tried the millions of paper
petals blew away and none reached their target. The next year
they were on target (unfortunately) but the polythene
container didn't open and the landed on a tourist.
The next year they tried an ‘improved’ and
larger container which again failed to open and landed on a
display of cars damaging a restored vehicle. After that the
aerial antics were abandoned.
Most flowers fade and die but at whatever time
of the year you visit Jersey there is a selection of
impressive floats made from marram grass and wildflowers that
can be seen in the Battle of the Flowers Museum.  They
have all been created by
Florence Bechelet who has been entering the
Battle for sixty years. It is well worth making the trip to
view the large collection at her farm in the rural parish of
St Ouen. Polar bears, kangaroos, flamingos and Clydesdale
horses are among the fascinating flowery animals you see as
you are guided around by an excellent commentary.
FACT
FILE
Brochures
Jersey Tourism 01534 500777
Battle
of the flowers: £4.00 to £15.00
The Moonlight Parade: £2.00 to
£5.00.
Tickets and information, 01534
639000.
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