Transforming the plaza of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre into a lavish garden is no easy feat, but this Saturday (August 6), landscapers, floral artists, and designers will do just that, using locally-grown flowers and plants to create the set of Ballet BC’s latest show, Babylon.

Organized in part by local event agency The Social Concierge, the fundraiser performance will see the company’s world-class dancers take to the floor in front of a lush botanical backdrop.

Behind the scenes, Flower Factory’s principal designer Gloria Cheung has been hard at work recruiting floral designers and growers for the event. Building their own version of the mystical Hanging Gardens of Babylon, she and a team of designers will each be creating their own living wall using predominantly B.C.-grown flowers.

Recruited by The Social Concierge’s Tyson Villeneuve, Cheung was tasked with facilitating floral designers, and made calls to colleagues and friends to see if they would be interested in taking part.

With her help, local growers including Mount Newton Floral in Saanich, and United Flower Growers in Burnaby, signed on to supply plants for the show.

“I also brought in Hitomi Gilliam, who is internationally well-known,” Cheung says during an interview with the Straight at Flower Factory’s Main Street studio.

A strong component of floristry as an art, Gilliam was first inducted into the American Institute of Floral Designers in 1986. She’s also the creative director and director of education at Design358, her Vancouver-based company which facilitates floral art workshops and events around the world.

When it came to planning the walls for the show, Cheung says she and her team wanted to go beyond the visual sense:

“We also wanted to produce some floral pieces that were interactive with the general populous; something you can touch and feel,” she says.

While roughly 90 percent of the flowers in the show will have been grown locally, Gilliam has helped Cheung bring in David Austin Roses, a company that specializes in the breeding of English roses. 

“They’re a beautiful variety that almost look like peonies because they are triple-pleated at times,” Cheung says.

In addition, Gilliam has also enlisted the Hawaiian Growers Association, which will be chipping in what Cheung calls, “some unusual products.”

“Some of the walls will be very colourful, and some are more interpretive, unusual pieces using vines, trailing plants and hanging pieces,” Cheung explains. “It will encompass everything.”

She’s not exaggerating: one texture-oriented wall will even feature succulents and mosses. 

Cheung says her wall will be predominantly made up of florals, including 16 varieties of very rare dahlias that have only recently begun being cultivated in the province.

Having worked with Ballet BC as a floral sponsor for more than 12 years, the longtime floristry artist has an inherent understanding of the similarities between dance and floral design.

“They go hand-in-hand, in the sense that they both evoke emotion,” she says. “It’s very instantaneous—you either like a piece or you don’t.”

Both require a certain fluidity, she says, with colour and placement playing equally important roles.

“I think with Babylon in particular, we are producing pieces that are more sculpted—there’s movement there, and it tells a story in the same way that dance does.”

Babylon will take place at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza on Saturday, August 6 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through The Social Concierge.