The Malay Mail Online – 2 hours 24 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- Zamri makes sure the flowers and floral decorations are just right for the occasion. …
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — The Umno general assembly is always a colourful affair, more so with the thousands of blooms that decorate various places at the Putra World Trade Centre.
This year, the floral arrangements and landscaping uses 13 kinds of flowers and 12 types of tropical leaves.
Assistant housekeeper Zamri Hasim, 43, said among the 24,000 stalks of flowers used for the event are roses, orchids, chrysanthemums and heliconia rostrata (commonly known as hanging lobster claw) while the tropical leaves include chicken tail, ivy and carnation.
“Most of our flowers are brought from Cameron Highlands but we have also imported flowers such as roses from Holland and India,” he said.
Zamri, who oversees the entire flower and landscaping arrangements in the building, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not have any personal preferences and was always satisfied with the decorations.
“Datuk Seri is not choosy but we usually come up with something special for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and the VIP suites,” he said, referring to Najib’s wife.
“All the decorations are my own masterpiece and I decide on the arrangement.”
He said the most expensive flower — the cymbidium orchid (boat orchid) — costs RM56 a stalk, which is placed in a shallow glass vase on each coffee table of the VIP suites. Roses are only used in such suites.
There are a total of 13 spaces decorated with fresh flowers, including eight halls and five VIP suites.
He said while he was free to use his creativity in decorating for the event, the arrangement for the 2014 assembly was made to suit the party’s theme, with flowers in the main halls strictly being red, white and yellow, which are the colours of the party’s flag.
Zamri, who has 25 years of experience of working at PWTC, said his employees of nine permanent staff and six part-timers began preparations on Sunday, after the suppliers delivered the goods.
The flowers and leaves used in the decorations would be left throughout the event and the staff would do a daily check on the plants and replace them if necessary.
“We use only fresh bouquets and mostly ‘five-star’ flowers for our decorations. We have never used artificial ones before,” he said.
