This week, El-Saady Badawy, professor of ornamental plants and garden landscaping at the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, completed a project he has worked on with a dedicated team of researchers for five years: developing a detailed and comprehensive code for Egypt’s wide and diverse range of ornamental plants.
“This is about what we have; what we have been developing; the detailed features of every plant; how to plant, and how to deal with the plant from root to crown,” he explained.
According to Badawy, this code is not just a matter of overdue documentation of the country's rich floral history. “It is also a very practical matter of resolving all misunderstandings that occur between the producer, the exporter, and the importer of these plants,” he said.
Over the past three years, Egypt’s exports of ornamental flowers have increased significantly. According to official figures, exports nearly quadrupled from 2022 to 2023, driven by rising demand from Gulf Arab countries, the main destination for Egyptian cut flowers.
The exports continued to grow in the following two years, adding to the overall country’s revenues of foreign currency at a moment of crunch.
This year, due to the US-Israeli war on Iran, the exports may stabilize or record a small drop. Traders remain hopeful that stability in Gulf countries will lead to stronger imports in the second half of the year, offsetting the slowdown in the first quarter and helping Egypt maintain its position as an emerging exporter of cut flowers.
“We are doing alright with cut flowers and with ornamental plants in general, in terms of production and exports,” Badawy said. “Actually, we are doing very well in terms of production and exports of aromatic plants like Jasmine, rosemary, and mint.”
However, he said Egypt “can do much better, and I am hoping that once adopted, the coding system we have just finished will help the growth of the production and exports.”
“Our plants, due to our planting conditions and the way we have developed them, have considerable resilience, which makes them very compatible with the Gulf market compared to those coming from Europe and north Asia,” he explained.
Overall, despite the growing trend to dedicate more agricultural land to farming ornamental and aromatic plants, Egypt still has just over 100 producers and exporters. Badawy is hopeful that with the clear specification included in the code, more producers will be interested.
Badawy argued that Egypt can expand into new markets, including in Africa. “Most fruit plants could actually have an ornamental profile, and there again, Egypt does have a considerable edge with anything from the mango and orange trees to the palm trees,” he said.
“We have a long-standing history in the field; it is a history of thousands of years, and we have incredible farming skills; if we compare this established practice with the overall exports, I would say we need to aim much higher,” he stressed.
Papyrus and Lotus were planted in Old Egypt, where plants were part of the spiritual and religious practices, Badawy reminded. During her reign, he added, Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt between 1479 and 1458, was very invested in importing and integrating many plants, including ornamental and aromatic species.
“Clearly, it was Khedive Ismail who made the most impressive modern leap in the field of ornamental and aromatic plants,” Badawi said. Ismail ruled Egypt between 1863 and 1879.
“Ismail was very focused on modoernization and realized that expanding the country’s scope of greenery and diversity of cut flowers was an integral part of this modernization scheme,” Badwy said. “This was such a visionary approach, and today it is something worth recalling and re-enforcing, not just for trade benefits but for the benefits of society.”
During his 15-year rule, Khedive Ismail established several large, impressive European-style botanical gardens and parks filled with a wide range of plants. Some were native to Egypt or already grown there, while others were brought in specifically for these gardens, creating a rich and diverse collection. Trees and plants were imported from India, Australia, Cuba, Madagascar, and Brazil.
“Whatever plants and trees that were brought over were accustomed to the Egyptian soil and weather, with new variations, actually, having been developed,” Badawi said. “The country’s centuries of farming skills really served the botanical passion of the Khedive, which was complemented by world-class landscaping schemes.”
The most spectacular of these botanical gardens was the Orman Garden, which was established in 1875, with the initial purpose of supplying flowers and fruits for the palaces of the Khedive himself.
“Orman is a Turkish word, which means the forest; Khedive Ismail wanted Cairo to have its own forest in a clear impact of the Jardin des plantes of Paris that was founded in the 17th century,” Badway said.
Currently, the Orman Garden and its adjacent Giza Zoo, which was also founded by Khedive Ismail in 1869, are under a massive restoration plan by an Emirati investor. They are both scheduled for opening later this year or early next year.
Another botanical garden established by Khedive Ismail was the Ezbekiyya Gardens, which later became a major cultural hub in the city before it gradually declined and was largely lost starting in 1952. According to Badawy, this was a deeply painful loss. “Nothing could justify such a major loss; it was part of the country’s floral heritage,” he said.
Two years ago, the Cairo governorate launched a scheme to bring Al-Ezbakiya back to life. “We will see how this project will pick up, but clearly there was some irreversible damage that was done,” Badawy said.
“We have also lost large parts of the Zoheriya Garden, built over 150 years ago to acclimatize plants, and the Aquarium Grotto Garden. However, both still partially survive in Zamalek,” he added.
“And it is not just Cairo, we have impressive gardens in Alexandria that were either founded or upgraded during the rule of Khedive Ismail, including the Antoniades Gardens, which is part of a wider botanical complex that was developed following the example of the Jardin de Versailles,” he said.
“Some really decent restoration work has been done there, but clearly once something is destroyed or neglected for long, it becomes too difficult to have it recreated according to its original version,” he added.
Badawy is convinced that each governorate in Egypt deserves to have more green parks, even if not necessarily as exquisite as those founded in the 19th century. “They do add much, not just in terms of beauty and city temperature but also in terms of helping people to appreciate plants and to opt to have them grown,” he said.
He is particularly proud of the interest that people demonstrate in visiting the annual Spring Flowers exhibition, which used to be hosted at the Orman Gardens and has been recently hosted at the garden of the Agriculture Museum, in view of the restorations of the Orman Gardens.
“It is really impressive to go and visit this exhibition that is creating space not just for the producers to show their newly grown and acclimatized plants but also for people to buy indoor and outdoor plants,” said.
Al-Azhar Park, opened in 2005, was built on more than 70 feddans of land that had been a garbage dump. In August this year, along with a group of botanical experts and landscape planners, Badawy will mark 21 years since its success, which he said is based on major investment by the Aga Khan Foundation, strong government support, and the dedication of planners.
Each time he visits the park and sees people enjoying the greenery, Badawy feels rewarded for years of work that helped bring the project to life. The park was first planned in the 1980s, but major work in the late 1990s and early 2000s led to its completion.
Today, he said, Egypt is well-positioned not only to expand its plant production and exports, but also to increase its green spaces. “We have the expertise, a wide variety of suitable plants for new parks, and strong public interest, clearly shown in the Spring Flowers Exhibition and Al-Azhar Park,” he said.
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