After Europe and North America, Asia was the new destination for the Horticultural Expo this time. In 1990, the Japanese city of Osaka hosted the first horticultural exhibition from April 1 to Sep. 30, on an area of 140 hectares with the participation of 83 countries.
The exhibition witnessed a record number of visitors, nearly 23 million people, twenty years after Osaka hosted the 1970 World Expo.
Osaka City and the Japanese Government shared the objective of holding an international exhibition as part of a wider strategy to promote environmental issues and to triple the amount of green space in Japan.
The selected theme - "The Harmonious Coexistence of Nature and Mankind" - reflected this objective and looked towards creating a more humanistic world for the 21st century.
The exhibition attracted more than 3,300,000 visitors. Starting with leveling and draining, it took a total of six years to develop the site, with organizers aiming at designing a "Garden of Eden". This design was a triangular "goose-foot" site.
In 1993, the exhibition returned to Germany, this time in the city of Stuttgart, where it was held from April 23 to Oct. 17, on an area of 64 hectares with the participation of 40 countries.
The Expo attracted 7,300,00 visitors. The Expo site was located close to the northeast of the city center, and its development was a core part of the "Green-U" project to connect several of Stuttgart's existing parks in a continuous belt.
As the site encompassed existing parks with differing terrain and characteristics, visitors could appreciate a great deal of variation between the many gardens. Among the highlights were a sea of tulips spilling out of a shipping container in the Netherlands' Garden, an Ancient Egypt-inspired garden with palm trees, India's geometrical garden, and Ukraine's country house.
In 1999, China was the second Asian country to host the Horticultural Expo. From May 1 to Oct. 31, the Chinese city of Kunming organized a horticultural exhibition on a huge area of 218 hectares with the participation of 70 countries, and the exhibition received more than 9,400,000 visitors Under the theme "Man and Nature Marching into the 21st Century", the Expo was organized in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, an area renowned for its agriculture and its rapidly developing horticultural sector.
Following a grand opening ceremony attended by the President of China Jiang Zemin and a live broadcast gala show dubbed "The Romance of Heaven on Earth," and as the first BIE-sanctioned International Exhibition to be organized in China, the Expo drew a great deal of national and international media attention.
The Expo's theme was directly addressed in the Man and Nature Hall, which addressed environmental problems and displayed achievements and solutions necessary to ensure coordinated development. Beyond the gardens and plant exhibits, the organizers promoted the development of the theme by holding a series of international conferences and academic round-table meetings, focusing on technological progress and the protection of the environment.
In the Netherlands again and for the fifth time, specifically in the city of Haarlemmermeer in northern Netherlands, the Horticultural Expo was held in 2002 from April 25 to Oct. 20 on an area of 140 hectares with the participation of 30 countries, where the exhibition received more than two million visitors.
With the motto "Feel the Art of Nature", the Expo's organizers opted to address the enjoyment of nature alongside the importance of living in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner.
In line with the environmentally focused theme, the site was developed with the existing landscape in mind, integrating existing trees and plants, including a century-old plane tree.
In 2003, Germany hosted the Horticultural Expo for the fifth time in the city of Rostock in northern Germany from April 25 to Oct. 12, on an area of 100 hectares with the participation of 32 countries.
The Expo attracted 2,600,000 visitors. The Expo was organized under the theme (Mankind Nature Water), highlighting the importance of humanity's relationship with the environment and Rostock's location at the mouth of the Warnow River on the Baltic Sea.
Developed on a parcel of undeveloped land along the riverbank, the Expo was nicknamed "the Green Expo by the Sea". Expo organizers opted to incorporate as many natural elements as possible within the Expo site, making use of existing streams and designating protected areas of existing vegetation.
This time, the new destination for the Horticultural Expo was Thailand, where the city of Chiang Mai hosted the exhibition in 2006 from Nov. 1, 2006, to Jan. 31, 2007, on an area of 80 hectares with the participation of 32 countries.
The exhibition received more than 3,800,000 visitors and was hosted in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee and 80th birthday of King Bhumibol of Thailand, at the time the world's longest reigning monarch.
The theme "To Express the Love for Humanity" reflected the lasting love between nature and mankind. Thirty-two countries presented indoor and outdoor gardens, rare plants exhibitions and took part in cultural performances.
Over 2.5 million trees of 2,200 species were planted for the event, as well as numerous tropical plants and flowers. One of the main highlights of the Expo was the Gardens for the King, which featured 23 international and 22 corporate gardens.
For the sixth time, the Horticultural Expo returns to the Netherlands, where in 2012 the city of Venlo hosted this event from April 5 to Oct. 7 on an area of 66 hectares, and the exhibition attracted more than two million visitors.
Organized under the theme "Be part of the theatre of nature; get closer to the quality of life", the Expo was designed as an event to inspire rather than to instruct. The Netherlands Horticultural Council aimed to make the visitor experience a sustainable positive memory.
In 2016, Turkey was the country that hosted the Horticultural Expo in the city of Antalya from April 23 to Oct. 30.
The exhibition was held on an area of 112 hectares with the participation of 54 countries, where it attracted more than 4,600,000 visitors.
Under the theme "Flowers and children," the Expo aimed to address global environmental issues, to share experiences in horticulture and agriculture, and to increase quality of life through the creation of green spaces and new job opportunities.
With its motto "A Green Life for Future Generations", the Expo encompassed four subthemes: History, Biodiversity, Sustainability, and Green Cities.
With over 26,000 trees, three million flowers and several hundred species of shrubs, cacti, geophytes and aquatic plants in the theme gardens, the site was a true festival of horticulture.
In 2019, the Horticultural Expo was organized in Beijing, China from April 29 to Oct. 7, 2019, on a very large area of 509 hectares, with record participation also reaching 110 countries, where the event attracted around 9,300,000 visitors.
Organized under the theme "Live Green, Live Better", Expo 2019 Beijing was dedicated to people's common desire for a green lifestyle and to helping humankind adapt to, respect and integrate into nature.
The logo of Expo 2019, dubbed 'Blooming at the foot of the Great Wall', consists of six different colored petals surrounding a stylized image symbolizing stamens and the Great Wall of China.
Once again in Amsterdam, the Netherlands hosted the Horticultural Expo in 2022 from April 14 to Oct. 9, on an area of 60 hectares with the participation of 32 countries, where around 680,000 people visited the exhibition throughout its stay.
In Almere, Amsterdam, the Expo was conceived as a living laboratory in with creative, green solutions that make cities more fun, more liveable and more sustainable, with the theme "Growing Green Cities".
Next to the international exhibits, the Dutch horticulture sector together with national participants exhibited their green solutions, such as the spectacular 10,000 m2 greenhouse complex, beautiful gardens and innovative buildings with surprising designs made from sustainable materials.
In 2023, specifically on Oct. 2, Doha will be a major stage for hosting an inspiring edition of the Horticulture Exhibition until March 2024, making the Expo 2023 Doha the first international Horticulture Exhibition in the Middle East and North Africa. (QNA)
Source: Qatar News Agency