Celebrations of Spring: The Orman Botanical Gardens and Egypt’s Annual Flower Festival
Kenzy Fahmy
Egyptians have a long and enduring relationship with gardening and agriculture, a love affair that goes back to the ancients, perhaps even beyond. With the Nile as the lifeblood and dark fertile soil as the canvas, the land here is fruitful and ideal for cultivation. Gardens were celebrated thousands of years ago and continue to be celebrated until today. The Annual Flower Show at the Orman Botanical Gardens in Giza is one of the oldest and largest of these celebrations and is well worth a visit.
The ancient Egyptians were avid gardeners, taking what started as simple fruit orchards and small green spaces and elevating it to an art form. Gardens became more and more luxurious; they became a source of pleasure as well as a source of sustenance. Serene lotus ponds were framed by flower beds and trees created much needed shade and shelter from the harsh sun. Vast gardens were built around the royal palaces, some with ponds large enough to carry boats. This fascination with ornamental gardens was carried into the Middle Ages and all the way up to the 19th century when Egypt went through a period of development and modernization, the peak of which came under the rule of Ismail Pasha.
The Orman Gardens date back to the 1870s when Khedive Ismail, an avid lover of all things botanical, commissioned French landscaper, Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps, to create a large garden for the Giza Palace, which at one point served as the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. Ismail Pasha, who brought a number of plants and trees to Egypt during his reign, including the Eucalyptus trees that line many of the country’s canals, wanted to create a small forest in the heart of the growing capital, hence the name “Orman”, which means “forest’ in Turkish. Ismail was inspired by the Parisian botanical gardens and wanted to recreate something similar here in Egypt where he could host and entertain his guests.
Just a couple of decades later, a large plot of the palace gardens was allocated to the Giza Zoo, which was inaugurated in 1891, and by 1910, the rest of the gardens had been turned over to the Ministry of Agriculture and were opened up to the public.
During the 1930s, the Orman Gardens began hosting an annual spring flower show exhibiting different plants from farms around the country. The festival is a celebration not only of spring, taking place around March and April each year, but it’s a celebration of Egypt’s long horticultural history, of our deep love for gardens and greenery, and most of all, it’s a celebration of the diversity of plant life here in Egypt.
Today the fair features exhibits by some of the biggest landscaping companies in the country, as well as smaller growers and suppliers of gardening tools and necessities. There are sections with dazzling displays of exotic or rare plants and trees, as well as sections specializing in herbs and spices. Anything you could possibly want or need can be found here.
The festival runs until the end of March this year. Tickets are very affordable and the gardens are a beautiful space to walk through, regardless of whether you plan on buying anything or not. You can spend the day browsing the never-ending rows of colorful cacti and bright flower arrangements. Take a walk around the beautiful pond and stop by one of the vendors selling honey from Aswan or dates from Siwa. The flower show is the perfect way to disconnect from our fast-paced Cairo lives and enjoy the splendor and serenity of a beautiful garden, just as we’ve done for thousands of years.