Planting a seed

"We will pay more attention to the small details in the future," she says.

Wang Chuncheng, deputy director of the coordination bureau of the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition, the event's co-organizer, says the festival also aims to help the public learn more about the materials and techniques of gardening so they can improve their living environments.

Sun Zhaoren, another participant from Tsinghua University, agreed. "We've learned more about the application of bamboo and new ways to integrate it into gardens."

As well as the exhibition displaying the bamboo gardens, a series of events were held during the festival that welcomed the public's participation－including a lecture and a bamboo-product-making class. These introduced new varieties of flowers as well as gardening knowledge and skills.

Wang concludes that China is probably one of the countries with the longest history of gardening, yet it still doesn't have an internationally renowned gardening festival.

However, that may be about to change as Beijing will host a large-scale global gardening event in April 2019. Numerous international organizations from 65 countries are slated to participate, according to Wang.

He also hopes small gardens, similar to the ones on show at the competition, can be displayed at the expo, too.