Brussels Flower Carpet - Belgian

Hello! I am the Brussels Flower Carpet. I am not a carpet you would find in a house. Instead, I am a giant, living picture made entirely out of fresh flowers. My story began in the year 1971. That was the very first time people saw me covering the beautiful main square in Brussels, Belgium. My home is a famous and lovely square called the Grand-Place. A man named Etienne Stautemas had a wonderful idea to create a huge, colorful carpet of flowers for everyone to come and see, and that is how I came to be.

Creating me is a very big job that takes many helping hands. It takes hundreds of volunteers working together to bring my design to life. It is like they are painting a giant picture, but instead of using paint, they use flowers! They carefully place hundreds of thousands of colorful flowers, one by one, onto the ground. These flowers are packed so closely together that you cannot see any space between them. There is no soil used at all. This is what makes me look like a real, soft carpet that has been unrolled across the entire square for people to enjoy.

The flowers used to make me are very special. I am always made from a type of flower called a begonia. There are good reasons for this choice. Begonias are strong and sturdy, so they can last for the few days that I am on display without wilting. They also grow in many different, bright colors, like red, yellow, pink, and white. This gives the artists who design me a whole rainbow of colors to work with. Belgium is a country that is famous for growing millions of begonias every year. Because so many are grown there, my creators have plenty of beautiful petals to choose from for every new design.

I do not appear every year, which makes my visits special. People can come to the Grand-Place to see me for just a few days once every two years. My visits always happen during the warm summer month of August. One of the most exciting things about me is that I am never the same. Every time I appear, I have a completely new design. Each design has its own special theme. Sometimes, my theme honors a country from around the world. Other times, it might celebrate an important idea or mark a special anniversary. This means that every two years, visitors get a brand new, beautiful surprise when they see me.