Begonias to bloom for new floral fest

WHILE the Begonia Festival won’t return until March next year, a new event to be held at Barkly Square this weekend is aiming to tide people over with a different sort of floral display.

Running Saturday and into Sunday, the first-ever Ballarat East Floral Arts Festival will showcase more than 20 non-tuberous begonias, and other species of flowers as part of the free event.

The festival is an initiative from begonia grower Kevin Moneghetti, the City of Ballarat, and Melbourne Begonia Society secretary Norman Gerraty who said it’ll highlight species not typically seen in Ballarat’s signature floral event.

“The Begonia Festival plants are only a small part of a very large family of begonias,” he said. “We want to expose Ballarat to the others.

“The significant number of them other than what’s seen at Ballarat are in flower now and at their best in November.

“We thought it’d be a good idea to highlight some of them. These are types of begonias that wouldn’t normally be seen here.”

Mr Gerraty, Mr Moneghetti, and chrysanthemum grower Chris Smith will host workshops on topics like indoor planting, terrariums, and propagation, with the latter presenting on Sunday only.

Members of Creswick Garden Club will host a display for both days, while many plants will be for sale.

Mr Gerraty said the aim of the festival is to show people in Ballarat how easy it is to cultivate non-tuberous begonias.

“They’re an attractive proposition for patio and potted culture. We want to show people how easy non-tuberous begonias are to grow,” he said.

“The tuberous ones at the Begonia Festival, probably 80 per cent are going back to Melbourne because it’s a tourist attraction. They’ll be enjoyed for six to eight weeks whereas the begonias we grow survive 12 months of the year.

“There’s no independent begonia society functioning here in Ballarat as well so if this is successful the Melbourne society is likely to take positive steps and help in some development of ongoing begonia culture here.”

The Ballarat East Floral Arts Festival will run from 10am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.