Massive flower carpet gift sparks fight between TA city hall, flower growers

A colossal flower carpet that Belgium plans to give Tel Aviv as part of the city's centennial celebrations is causing a dispute between the municipality and flower growers around the country.

The flower growers - the vast majority of whom live outside Tel Aviv - say that by accepting Belgian flowers, the city will be providing employment for Belgian horticulturalists at the expense of Israelis.

The flower carpet is planned for September, and the more than 700,000 flowers will come from a specialist florist from the Belgian town of Nieuwkerken. The carpet, which will wither after three days, will cost an estimated NIS 2 million.

It remains to be determined how much of the cost will be covered by Belgian taxpayers, and how much will be paid for by Israelis.

"We find it unbelievably wasteful to import flowers to a major flower exporter like Israel," said Hayim Hadad, head of Israel's flower grower's association, to Haaretz this week.

"It is foolish. Instead of giving Israelis work, they went and gave it to the Belgians. I don't understand," he added.

But Eitan Schwartz, a public relations representative for the municipality, told Haaretz, "Only the know-how of how to weave flower carpets will be imported. The flowers themselves will be Israeli-grown."

Hadad says he is skeptical. "We are talking about 850,000 flowers here," he said. "This is a major order and it needs to be placed well ahead of delivery. We have received no such order, so I don't see how this carpet will contain Israeli flowers."

Koen Vondenbusch, the expert florist from Belgium slated to weave and lay the carpet on September 15, says he will need at least 550,000 begonias, which he believes "will all come from Belgian flower growers."

Vondenbusch, 45, said it was "a great honor" to be commissioned for the project.

He said he hoped the authorities will not leave the flower carpet for more than three days. "Begonias don't have contain enough water to stay pretty past that," he said.