Conference about annual garden show at BGC, 2009 Gulf Daily News By Rebecca Torr,  Posted on » Wednesday, December 30, 2009 BAHRAIN Garden Club is urging adults, students and other groups to enter the 45th Annual Open Amateur Flower and Vegetable Show competitions. Competition categories include flower arranging, gardens, experimental gardening, fruit and vegetable carving, and photography. The club has changed the criteria for garden and flower groups and introduced new categories. The main aim for the changes is to cater to Bahrain's changing environment and to attract greater participation, said club chairwoman Zahra Abdul Malik at a Press conference held at the clubhouse in Juffair yesterday. "We have made changes to the garden sizes for residential gardens to take into account the limitation of space in Bahrain and we hope this will trigger more people to enter," she said. "Small gardens will be a maximum of 500sqm, medium gardens up to 1,000sqm and large gardens up to 1,500sqm. "We have also introduced a city garden this year for those who live in the capital where gardens are limited. "These gardens can be a small balcony in their flat that has hanging baskets, containers, climbers, a small tree under seven metres or a small water feature." She said new floral arrangement titles had been introduced for adult and student groups. Titles for the adult floral exhibits are treasures from land and sea, nostalgia, harsh beauty, leaves lovely leaves, the suq, earth's bounteous harvest, my kitchen, mix and match and it's a small world. Student floral arrangements include friendship, journey into colours, miniature garden and my favourite plant. The photography competition title is edible garden scape and close up of a fruit or vegetable. Ms Abdul Malik said the Southern Governor and the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife president Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa cup would be allocated for edible and productive gardens. "A lot of people have fruit trees, vegetables and herbs in their gardens, but they don't want to enter the other categories, so we want to give them the chance," she said. The Capital Governor Shaikh Hamood bin Abdulla Al Khalifa's cup for front yards in the capital governorate is open to houses, embassies, hotels, shopping malls, banks, companies and other buildings. Competition Ms Abdul Malik said the club wanted to attract more hotels to compete in the fruit and vegetable carving competition. Registration for all competition categories is now open and all are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible. The registration deadline for the home gardens competition is January 21, with judging taking place on January 30 and 31. The deadline for front yards in the Capital Governorate is also January 21, but judging will take place on February 6 and 7. The registration deadline for photography is February 6. All other categories must register by February 18. Adults and students should bring their entries to the Bahrain International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hall 2, on February 23 and judging will take place the same day. Adults must submit their entries between 8am and 10am and students between 10.30am and 1pm. For more information about the show and the club's activities visit www.bahraingardenclub.com or call 17727625.