Pick of the bunch for floral World Cup

USA, from June 15-19 this year.
The prestigious competition, held in a different country every four years, is the floral world equivalent of the Fifa World Cup and generates just as much excitement for floral enthusiasts.
The Team:
Felicity Ambrose
Felicity Ambrose is a qualified Horticultural and Floral Art Judge (one of only two in the country) as well as being an Ikebana (instructor) for the O’Hara school.
She is on the National Panel of Floral Art Judges and has competed in many floral art competitions winning many awards.
Set to be one of the judges at the upcoming World Flower Show in Boston, Felicity was the resident floral arranger at Imba Matombo as well as Seasons (restaurants) and has currently got five regular contracts to supply flowers for corporate clients.
She has assisted Sino-Zim in all their exhibitions and taken part in many other exhibitions on behalf of clients. She was also responsible for flowers at the American Embassy for four years.
She is also responsible for many weddings.
Neels Scott
Flower arranging does tend to be associated with ladies but it is really for anyone and no one proves that better than Neels Scott, one of the best floral designers that this country has produced.
Neels Scotts’ interest in gardening and flowers started at a young age.
After moving to Harare he started up a nursery in Mt Pleasant and subsequently discovered the wonderful world of flower arranging.
This started off as a hobby and soon became a passion. Neels became a member of Northwood floral group and took Ikebana lessons with Felicity Ambrose.
Despite having a full-time 8-5 job, Neels has entered various floral art competitions with well deserved awards, achievements and comments.
The most recent show Neels entered was in Durban, South Africa, where he entered in the Pavilion Floral Art competition with three designs of which all got high awards, two gold awards and a silver, with the one design named “Spice” taking the highest award on offer..
Lorette Smith
Lorette’s involvement with flower arranging began in January 2007 when she hosted a floral workshop in her garage. She entered her first regional flower competition 10 months later, gaining “third” and “highly commended” places.
In February of 2008 she competed again, this time walking away with two firsts.
In her first National Floral Art Competition in September 2009 she garnered three “firsts”, including “Best Use of Colour” and “Most Points Earned Overall”.
Lorette was chairlady of her local floral group before resigning to become secretary to the Zimbabwe Panel of Floral Art Judges.
She has recently been invited to study and become a Floral Art Judge soon after the Boston World Flower Show.
Kayla Smith
Kayla is 13 years old and participates in Floral Art Competitions when there is a section for her to compete in.
Kayla has only been involved in floral art for a few years but her first National Floral Art Competition was in Kwekwe last June and she received two first places.
She has recently been promoted from “novice” section to “intermediate” section in the Borrowdale Floral Art Group.
Zimbabwean Floral Art Scene
The National Association of Garden Clubs (NAGC) is the body that governs floral art activities in the country.
The association was proud to be the instigator of the idea of an expo which was originally held in Ruwa.
It then featured both smaller gardens and a floral art demonstration as well as commercial stands.
It then amalgamated with Exhibition Park and last year was part of the Harare Agricultural Show.
An annual Floral Art Competition is held and this prestigious event is the highlight of the year.
Experienced exhibitors meet stringent standards to be allowed to compete and the arrangements on display speak for themselves.
They compete for nine trophies.
There are now currently 17 garden and floral clubs (from a one time high of 50).
Members are kept in touch with a quarterly newsletter giving snippets and ideas from around the world.
The Zimbabwean floral artists have created honorary exhibits around the world and the most recent was in Dromantine, Ireland, where Morag Flight, Lynda Grace and Margaret Shattock depicted a wild scene using Margaret’s drawings lasered onto wood.
The interpretation of Matopos was undertaken by Bets Mussell and Yvonne Eylers at Glasgow in 2002.
In Durban, 1999 Elisabeth Wakeford and Pinkey van Niekerk created an interpretation of the Victoria Falls.
l The writer, Morag Flight, is a qualified Horticultural Judge, the current editor of the newsletter and first vice president as well as the winner of a bronze medal at an international Flower Show in Ireland in 2006.
Morag is also a past president and current vice president of the Morag and Felicity have just taken on the running of the florist in the new Groombridge Spar. Morag was responsible for revamping the Highlands Park Hotel recently and is regularly asked to judge at the annual Harare Agricultural Show at Exhibition Park.
Her corporate clients include the Japanese, Norwegian and Danish embassies, the American embassy as well as Arundel Spar.
She maintained the gardens at the Japanese residence for a while and does flowers for a number of weddings as well.