Which municipality will be the most “bloomingest” this year?

Kimberley Hughes (left), Mayor Carol Hamilton, Professor of Tourism at Royal Roads, Brian White, and Past Chair for the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, Al Hasham, counting flowers at the media launch for the 43rd annual Flower Count. (Lindsey Horsting/News Gazette staff)

The sun came out just in time for the media launch of the 43rd annual Flower Count that took place in the Italian Gardens at Royal Roads University.

The Flower Count is a fun way to celebrate Greater Victoria’s mild climate and a friendly battle for flower supremacy amongst the municipalities. Colwood has been awarded the “bloomingest” municipality for the last four years.

READ MORE: Annual Flower Count to celebrate blooming community

The Vice Chair of Tourism Victoria, Kimberley Hughes, gave an opening speech at the kick off noting that as a result of a more temperate climate during shoulder seasons, Victoria continues to see an increase in tourism.

“It matters to us because it really showcase what an incredible destination we have,” she said. “While the rest of the country is digging out snowbanks, we are counting blossoms.”

In 1976, the inaugural year of the Count, 130 million flowers were counted.

Flower counts can be submitted on flowercount.com and followed on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (@FlowerCount) and the number of blossoms counted will be atributed to the community in which the contributer resides.

The shortcuts used to estimate the number of blossoms are as follows: a small tree full of blossoms equals 250,000 blossoms, a mid-sized heather bush has 1,000 blossoms and trees in full bloom count for 750,000 blossoms.

This event encourages community involvement and elementary school participation. Grade four and five students can make entries to try to win a trip to The Butchart Gardens awarded by L.A. Limousines. Cordova Bay Elementary School won last year with a class counting 23 million blooms.

UsedVictoria.com has partnered with the event for a daily prize giveaway. People can search for the daily flower count hidden blooms on UsedVictoria.com and then tweet it to have a chance at the giveaway. The tweet must include the hashtag #FlowerCount and @UsedVictoria handle.

The count officially starts on March 7 and goes until March 14.

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lindsey.horsting@goldstreamgazette.com

Flower Count