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Green-fingered gardening enthusiasts are being encouraged to pick up their trowel and dig out their lawnmower by the Bahrain Garden Club as it prepares to host its popular Garden Bazaar later this month.
The club, which caters to both amateur and professional gardeners of all ages and regularly hosts lectures discussing new techniques and ideas, was founded in 1964 and is located in Juffair behind Bahrain School.
Back then, a small group of locals and expats asked the late Emir Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa for permission to start the club, which he granted before becoming a patron himself. Since May 1999, His Majesty King Hamad has taken his place as patron and the club has an affiliation with the world-famous Royal Horticultural Society based in London.
Club chairperson Zahra Abdul Malik, who has been a member of the club since 1983 and on the board since 1984, believes the BGC is one of the kingdom’s special establishments.
She said: “It’s amazing that more than 50 years later, the BGC is still going strong and welcoming people from all walks of life to come together over their mutual love of nature and gardening while introducing a newer generation to its joys.
“Part of the club’s appeal is that it welcomes anyone as long as they have a keen interest in gardening.
“At the moment we have approximately 100 members, which includes not only Bahrainis, but a variety of expats too from Europe, India and many other nations. It’s the only garden club in the entire GCC and a source of immense pride for us.
“Many people come to us and say: ‘Why can’t you expand to other countries?’, but the truth is, Bahrain is different. There’s such a love for nature here and believe it or not, there are many tropical flowers that grow here that you won’t find anywhere else.”
The highlight of the horticultural calendar is the annual flower and vegetable show, the first of which was held in 1967. It takes place every February and attracts exhibitors from all around the world. This year was the biggest event yet, hosted at the National Exhibition Centre under the banner of ‘Bahrain International Garden Show’, as reported in GulfWeekly.
However, the next big event, the Garden Bazaar, will take place on October 29 in Mahooz from 9.30pm-5.30pm under the patronage of Shaikha Maram bint Isa Al Khalifa, Secretary General of the National Initiative for Agriculture Development.
Zahra, who was born in Kuwait but moved to Bahrain after graduating from Ohio State University with a Master’s degree in horticulture, and has had stints working as a researcher for the Ministry of Agriculture, owning a landscaping company and being a private gardening consultant while balancing her voluntary work with the BGC, believes it will be a big success.
She explained: “The bazaar is primarily to let people know what is truly possible in Bahrain. It’s common to hear, although completely wrong, that it’s desert which is difficult to grow flowers and shrubs in.
“It’s absolutely possible to have beautiful landscapes, and that’s what we aim to display. We will have numerous vendors and companies setting up stalls to offer advice and items, so hopefully they’ll be a hit with the public.”
Zahra is keen for as many people as possible to get involved, but mainly those enrolled at the kingdom’s schools as she sees nature and the environment as a vital factor in a child’s education.
She said: “We used to have a lot of children participating in our annual show, but this has diminished recently. Schools use the excuse that their children have enough extracurricular activities, such as other academic endeavours and sports, but we believe that gardening is just as important as any other.
“We want children to get involved and love the nature around them. In fact, it has the best of both worlds as it is not only educational, but gardening is a physical activity too.
“Secondly, we’d like to invite anybody who has an interest in the subject to come to the club and get involved. Whether it’s to sit in on some of our lectures (offered in both English and Arabic), browse our extensive library of horticultural texts, or just meet like-minded friends, we have it all.”
Readers interested in joining the Bahrain Garden Club can visit the club’s premises located behind the Bahrain School in Juffair. For more information, call 17727625, email bahrain.garden.club@gmail.com or visit www.bahraingardenclub.com
