Entente Florale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Entente Florale is an international horticultural competition. There are two categories : towns and villages, and cities. It was founded in 1977, initially as an Anglo-French competition. Entrants now come from nations across Europe, including the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The entrants are usually the winners of national competitions, such as Britain in Bloom or Ireland's National Tidy Town Awards competition. Each competing nations send a judge to examine the other entrants and decide the winner.

In 2004 Harrogate won the top prize for the Towns and Villages category.

In 2005 Sheffield won the top prize for the Cities category.

In 2006 Cardiff won the top prize for the Cities category.

In 2007, the city of Mechelen (Belgium) won the gold medal. The Jury said Mechelen was a "beautifully renovated city, with lovely trees and flowers, which boasts nice buildings and a perfect combination between modern architecture and national heritage" and also commented on Mechelen's clean public places. You can count 236 flower towers, 289 flower boxes, 1,119 flower baskets and 330 boxed plants.