Any flowers already in bloom likely took a beating during last week’s snowfall, but the flower count will continue undaunted.
Bruce Carter of the Chamber of Commerce is confident the weather will have no lasting effect. “(The snow) will be gone, and our flowers will be out,” he said. For seven days, anyone in Greater Victoria is invited to count the flowers anywhere in their municipality and log the results on the website (www.flowercount.com) for a friendly competition between municipalities.
“I think if you tried to audit the results, it would fail,” laughed Carter, adding any other city in Canada is welcome to challenge Victoria’s claims of having the most flowers in March.
In 2010, the non-scientific count tallied 21 billion blooms, of which Oak Bay claimed over half.
“They won last year, because a Grade 1 and 2 class just counted a ton of flowers,” Carter said. This year, students in Grade 4 and 5 will participate instead, drawing on their math curriculum of estimating numbers.
Eight mayors were signed up to participate in the flower arranging contest at the event launch which took place March 1 at the Bay Centre. Event organizers will be sending daffodils to media outlets across the country to market the city.