An ode to Omani heritage in bloom

Following the enchanting curtains drawn on the triumphant execution of Bloom Oman, an occasion that celebrated Oman’s wealthy cultural heritage by way of the language of flowers, joyous smiles adorned the faces of all attendees.

Significantly elated was Madhvi Ramesh Khimji, the Honorary President of the World Affiliation for Floral Artists (WAFA) Oman, who turned her dream into actuality by bringing this worldwide occasion to Oman and internet hosting it with outstanding success. The four-day Worldwide Flower Association Convention held on the Nationwide Museum served as a platform for fostering creativity and cultural trade within the vibrant world of floral artwork.

The Museum collaborated with WAFA, partaking over 80 floral artists from 18 nations. The occasion, which concluded on February 1, left Madhvi reflecting on the transformative potential of Oman. She emphasised, “By way of Bloom Oman, we goal to mission Oman’s identification onto the worldwide canvas. This occasion is extra than simply flowers; it’s a story of our traditions and an invite for the world to witness the inventive prowess inside our borders.”

Madhvi, instrumental in elevating Oman’s standing in WAFA, led a fascinating floral demonstration showcasing Oman’s mountains, expressing confidence in Oman’s potential to emerge as a distinguished flower vacation spot. The demo captured the colors, textures, and majesty of Oman’s numerous panorama.

She prolonged her gratitude to His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik and expressed honest appreciation to Jamal Al Moosawi, Secretary-Basic of The Nationwide Museum of Oman, and his whole group for his or her invaluable assist in offering Bloom Oman with a distinguished venue.

The ultimate day featured a reside inventive presentation of floral preparations by Phubast Chesdmethee, a global floral marketing consultant from Thailand, adopted by a style present titled ‘Past Blossoms.’ Based on Phubast, “Oman’s ample pure assets, highlighted by Bloom Oman, had been showcased in a floral demonstration and style present at The Nationwide Museum. Utilizing indigenous supplies akin to palm leaves, date tree trunks, branches, dried leaves, and native grapefruit, the floral installations attained a novel worldwide commonplace, including an distinctive contact to the occasion.”

Contributors, together with Christiane Heidemarie from Singapore and Madhu Shah with Helen Mitchell from Australia, shared their delight at presenting their works within the majestic setting of the Nationwide Museum of Oman. The varied floral creations showcased an array of supplies, together with Oman-sourced date palm spathe, date husks, cider leaves, port castles, and worldwide parts like Astelia leaves from New Zealand, banksia, and stirlingia.

Kitty Gallagher from Eire, Chairperson of WAFA, drew inspiration from interval types, translating them into modern floral preparations. She based mostly her works on interval types and on translate them to modern types. Her work is impressed by numerous historic intervals, together with the Victorian, Tudor, Dutch, and Flemish eras.

Poornima Subramanian from Oman highlighted modern works with chilly porcelain flowers, utilizing regionally made starch and glue from orchid flowers. Shahimah Sayeed and Amtul Rauf Khan from Pakistan introduced coral reefs from Ormara, east of Gwadar, together with vegetation sourced from Pakistan, successful 12 prizes on the competitions.

In addition to Oman, a number of the contributors got here from nations particularly US, UK, India, Pakistan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Kenya, Mexico, Italy, Eire, Germany, Hong Kong, UAE, Canada, and Belgium. There have been additionally male contributors from UAE, UK, and US with Warren W-Cha Wong and Lee Wan Cheng from Hong Kong including a novel contact to the occasion.

Key contributors to the success of ‘Bloom Oman’ embody Rita Chaitanya Khimji as Secretary, Poornima Subramanian as Treasurer, and Devyani Sampat as Hospitality In-charge. Trying forward, the following WAFA World Present is scheduled for March 2027 in Sydney, with the 14th WAFA Australia World Seminar set for August 2025, the place the gorgeous wildflowers of the West Coast of Australia will take centre stage.

Footage by Saetae Kim