It was a stormy morning, but fortunately everything was ready just in time for the opening of the flower and plant mosaic last Friday. The mosaic, built along the route of the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes in 's-Gravenzande, was unveiled by former cyclist and multiple world champion Keetie van Oosten-Hage. On Monday 12 August, the peloton traversed the Westland. More than 100,000 flowers and plants have been incorporated into the 1,000 m2 artwork by 65 volunteers.
With the mosaic, the flower and plant industry honours the pioneer of women's cycling, Mien van Bree. She became the first unofficial world cycling champion in 1938; a title that was not recognised at the time.
The mosaic from the air.
According to Yvonne Watzdorf of Bloemenbureau Holland, it is a project that has created a lot of connections: "With this project, we show how many beautiful things you can achieve together in a short time. We spontaneously started this project not too long ago and soon 40 growers turned out to want to cooperate to show how proud we are of our industry. Enthusiasm, entrepreneurship and decisiveness are in the DNA of floriculture. As with the Tour de France, helicopters will fly over to follow the Tour de France Femmes. With this in mind, the mosaic came about, so that our Dutch ornamental horticulture industry will be beautifully portrayed internationally."
Joyce Lansbergen helped finish the mosaic by placing one of the last flowers.
Joyce Lansbergen, managing director of LG Flowers is also excited to be an entrepreneur in this inspiring industry. The former speed skater and track cyclist shares her thoughts about being a woman in a man's world: "With my top sporting past and my role as a grower now, I am always developing and making myself better. Every day is about improvement, not just for me or my team, but for the whole company. In that, I gratefully make use of the fact that I'm a woman to tell my story, and the story of our floriculture industry."
Multiple world champion Keetie van Oosten-Hage placed the last flower.
Royal FloraHolland took care of transporting the flowers and plants and the barrels on site. In total, 100,000 plants and flowers were supplied by SV.CO, Evanthia, Zentoo and KP Holland, among others. After the opening stage, all the flowers and plants will be taken to care homes and hospitals in the area.
The mosaic could be viewed from a cherry-picker last Friday.
The Tour de France Femmes started at 12:15 h in the afternoon, in the Museumpark in Rotterdam. The women cycled through the Westland at around 14:40 h.
For more information:
Bloemenbureau Holland
www.bloemenbureauholland.nl
[email protected]