Following the recommendations of the urban greening task force released in 2009, we have implemented a Green Ambassador (GA) Scheme. Leading members of the community, including Legislative Council and District Council (DC) members, are invited to serve as GAs and help promote community involvement in the surveillance of trees. By March 2014, over 350 prominent citizens had joined the scheme.
Seminars and workshops were organised to raise Green Ambassadors' knowledge of tree management.
The Hong Kong Flower Show was held at Victoria Park from March 7 to 16, 2014. The show, which this year gave pride of place to the kalanchoe genus, attracted about 560 000 people.
Besides accepting cash payment for admission, we continued to accept Octopus payments to reduce queuing times.
The Flower Show had over 350 000 flowering plants on display, including six species and cultivars of kalanchoe, and exotic flowers and plants from all over the world. The show also featured magnificent floral art displays by horticultural groups from Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. Participants included over 210 horticultural organisations, private firms and government departments from Hong Kong and the Mainland, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Estonia, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The spectacular exhibit ‘A Garden of Joy in Hong Kong’ at the Hong Kong Flower Show 2014 used colourful kalanchoes to form a multi-layered parterre.
The Hong Kong Flower Show 2014 showcased more than 350 000 flowering plants.
In addition to major attractions such as landscape designs, flower arrangements, and displays of potted plants and bonsai, the show delivered a wide range of educational and entertainment programmes. These included horticultural talks, flower arrangement demonstrations, cooking demonstrations, musical performances, cultural presentations, exhibits, drawing and photo competitions, workshops on greening activities, green promotional stalls and guided tours, all designed to promote interest in horticulture and the greening of Hong Kong.
One of the main attractions of the Hong Kong Flower Show 2014 was a mosaiculture display entitled ‘My Home Among the Corals’, depicting marine creatures of the coral reefs.
The Hong Kong Flower Show 2014 included a wide range of educational programmes such as a student drawing competition.
Under the community greening programme, the department organised over 180 green promotional and outreach activities, with around 42 000 people taking part.
A horticulture instructor conducting a green talk for an outreach activity.
Some 4 900 Green Volunteers from the 18 districts were recruited under the Green Volunteer Scheme to carry out simple horticultural maintenance in parks. These volunteers also serve as stewards at green promotional activities. In 2013-14, around 480 greening activities were organised for the Green Volunteers.
The Community Garden Programme, which covers all 18 districts, encourages the public to participate in community-level greening activities and to adopt green practices in their daily lives. The programme is also designed to raise public awareness of environmental protection issues through gardening activities. The 18 districts now boast 22 community gardens. In 2013-14, 52 gardening courses were organised for more than 11 200 participants.
Participants in the Community Garden Programme planting in their allocated plots.
The department continued to work with the DCs and local communities to organise Community Planting Days throughout the year. In 21 planting days, involving over 5 200 participants, 46 trees and 23 700 shrubs were planted.
The Greening School Subsidy Programme, conducted during the year as part of a school greening programme, provided subsidies of $4.75 million to 889 schools and kindergartens. The money is used to help make school campuses greener and to provide green educational activities for students, with the assistance of part-time instructors. The greening projects were assessed, and the winning schools received a Greening School Project Award. Around 376 000 students were given pots of seedlings to nurture at home or at school under the ‘One Person, One Flower’ Scheme, which develops interest in greening by encouraging young people to grow plants.
