Give Flowers a New Home
It’s Spring time and you may have visited the Hong Kong Flower Show which is a major event to promote and display the cultivations of flowers. This year, more than 420,000 flowers were displayed including 40,000 Chinese Hibiscus as the theme flower. But have you ever wondered what happen to the flowers after the event?
Since 2014, Hong Kong Jockey Club has launched a replanting scheme to encourage replanting in the community and raise the public awareness, “Give the Flowers a New Home”. This year, with the effort of HKUST Facilities Management Office, our university is pleased to be part of this scheme by replanting those plants from the event and sharing with our community.
“On our campus, there are different planting spaces. Each year, we get new plants to replace the old or unhealthy plants.” said Mr. Lee Tim Chun, arborist from Landscaping Unit of FMO. Getting new plants is one of the major costs in maintaining landscape. By replanting the donated plants, it saves our cost. “We are also grateful that replanting in the community can raise our members’ awareness and contribute to sustainability.” HKUST always looks for opportunities in fulfilling the goals of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). By joining this scheme, we are able to give the plants a second life on our campus and reduce waste sending to landfill.
FMO has collected 200 pots of flower from the Flower Show this year, mainly Chinese Hibiscus. Known colloquially as China rose, it is an evergreen shrub up to 4m in height. It has large (6-10cm) and trumpet-shaped flowers which characterized by its stamens partly fused into a cylinder that surrounds the style. It is the most common plant species found in parks and gardens. Most of them were distributed in President Lodge and around Piazza. We hope that our students and staff can enjoy the beauty of our campus environment. In future years, FMO will also consider to arrange free collection of flowers to engage our community members.
Share with us if you have any thought about horticulture and landscape on campus at green@ust.hk.
