The grand return of the flower heart of Brussels

On August 12-15, the famous flower carpet, "woven" from begonias and dahlias, will again appear on the historic square in the very center of Brussels.

This tradition began in 1970, when the members of the Brussels City Council, Mrs. van den Heuvel, together with Mr. de Ronce, arrived in the city of Oudenarde, located in East Flanders, and saw a stunningly beautiful carpet of a thousand flowers. So the idea was born: Brussels will have its own flower carpet! And the very next year he appeared at the Grand Place. The first "product" was the result of a collaboration between Francs-Bourgeois (an association of retailers in the center of Brussels) and AVBS (Flanders Green Industries Federation), whose president at the time was Etienne Stoutemans.

As a tribute to Mr. Stautemans, the creators of the 2022 Brussels Flower Carpet will reproduce a design created by the author in 1971, repeating all the elements that were present in the original design. That carpet was called "Arabesques".

The 2022 design is the result of a collaboration between Mexican artist Roo Aguilar Aguado and Ken Vondenbusch. They spent over 280 hours reconstructing the drawing based on Stoutemans’ sketches. It will be something more than just a copy, it will be a rethinking. Other flowers grown in Flanders, such as chrysanthemums, will also be added to the arrangement.