March 2007

Blooming Marvellous

Australia’s garden shows blossom with great ideas and hot trends

WORDS MARGRET MEAGHER

It´s official: the patio has made a comeback! In the 1960s and 70s, the patio was regarded as the height of Australian sophistication – an entertainer’s haven that housed a drinks trolley, brick barbecue, Hawaiian flares and gardenias in pots.

These days, a patio just makes good common sense for any garden. Over the past 20 years, the average Australian house plot size has become smaller while the average house is now 25% bigger. At the same time, apartment living is growing in popularity among the first-home brigade and empty nesters. And with both lifestyles, there’s a desire for more alfresco dining and entertaining – which puts the patio right back in fashion and the balcony where it should be – as an extra room of the home that connects the outside to the indoors.

These trends and more will be addressed and discussed at the nation’s annual gardening shows, set to spring up around the country in the coming months. Gardening and flower shows have never been so popular, as increasingly time-poor gardeners learn about easy care, low-maintenance and sustainable gardening, and how to be water-wise in these current dry conditions.

Coinciding with the emphasis on smaller gardens for smaller spaces, there is an increasing focus on foliage – its colour, shape and texture. Lighting for effect, combined with portable heating for extended year-round use, is also now a priority for savvy gardeners. Not to mention the increasing popularity of using art, ornamentation and water; say goodbye to the humble gnome and hello to the Balinese figurine and water feature.

In Australia, there are a number of great flower shows to visit, with the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (MIGS) the most impressive in terms of number of visitors, floral displays, horticultural information, and landscape designs presented.

London’s annual Chelsea Flower Show, with 600 exhibitors attracts over 150,000 people, so the MIGS is right up there with an average crowd of 125,000 over a similar period of five days. Now in its 12th year, the MIGS features around 200 exhibitors (28 March – 1 April) at the heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building, spilling out into the surrounding Carlton Gardens.

One of the special features this year will be the recreation of Melbourne’s Motorbike Alley, with the latest Ducati motorbikes rubbing shoulders with heliconia, crab claws, orchids and gloriosa lilies, provided by www.fastflowers.com.au.

Another highlight of the show, in line with the current emphasis on colour in the garden, will be the display of a new range of miniature roses from Delbard’s famous Painters’ Collection. Perfect for the balcony or terrace, the colourful roses carry names such as Maurice Utrillo, Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne!

Celebrity appearances scheduled at the Kmart Garden House include popular television personality Deborah Hutto

In terms of national coverage, the ABC has it sewn up with its series of annual Gardening Australia Expos in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and, this year, for the first time in Perth and Adelaide. These events bring to life ABC TV’s popular Gardening Australia programme.

The series kicks off with the inaugural Perth Gardening Australia Expo. With 120 exhibitors and held at Perry Lakes, Floreat (12-15 April), it’s being staged in conjunction with Perth Garden Week, an event that has been run by the Nursery & Garden Industry WA for the past 34 years.

The ABC Brisbane Gardening Australia Expo follows (27–29 April) with 150 exhibitors at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Southbank. The Sydney Expo, featuring 270 exhibitors, is then staged at the Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush Bay (24–26 August), while the Melbourne show, with 250 exhibitors, runs from 5–7 October at Caulfield Racecourse. Last but not least, the ABC Adelaide Expo makes its debut (2–4 November) with 120 exhibitors at Jubilee Pavilion, Adelaide Showground in Wayville.

The ABC Expos are very hands-on, tackling subjects such as organic gardening, year-round colour, raising Australian native plants, growing nutritious veggies, propagating plants, and controlling pests and disease. One very popular section is the Gardener’s Village, where specialty foods and natural health goods are on display and available for sampling.

Parents can take time out too while their toddlers enjoy the interactive entertainment in the ABC for Kids Activity Area, with popular ABC TV Kids characters such as Fifithe Flowertot and her friend Bumble.

The Gardening Australia show has made household names of presenters such as Peter Cundall, Jane Edmanson, Jerry Coleby-Williams, Angus Stewart, Sophie Thomson and Josh Bryne, who are always great drawcards at the ABCs Gardening Australia Theatre at the Expos. ‘Ask It, Solve It’ is one of the popular segments on their programme. Check the ABC Gardening Australia website to find out who is appearing where.

At the ABC Gardening Australia- Expos last year, 27,000 people visited the Brisbane Expo, 30,000 visitors attended the Sydney Expo while Melbourne had 33,000 through the turnstiles! To avoid the queues, book online.

The annual Queensland Garden Expo is also an important show up north and this is its 23rd year (6-8 July). Held at Maroochy Showgrounds, Nambour on the Sunshine Coast, the Queensland Garden Expo attracts around 20,000 garden lovers and 340 exhibitors. See Queensland’s top landscape designers and nurseries showcase their creative talents, and vie for 40,000 plants up for sale. Special exhibits include the Giant Kitchen Garden along with demonstrations, lectures, cooking classes and a display of organic gardening.

The Queensland Home Garden Expo Lecture Series is another highlight, featuring over 35 complimentary lectures and workshops with Australia’s top horticulture experts. You can also visit 20 educational sites with a range of topics such as lawn alternatives, worm farms and saving water.

For those who like to plan ahead (show me a gardener who doesn’t), here are two more noteworthy events for garden lovers to remember – and they all take place in September.

Australia’s longest-running flower and garden festival, Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers, is on in Toowoomba, South East Queensland (21–30 September, www.thecarnivalofflowers.com.au). The Carnival’s Grand Central Floral Parade adds a whole new dimension to the term ‘street parade’. The Australian Springtime Flora Festival, now in its 20th year, is on at Mount Penang Parklands, Kariong near Gosford on NSW’s central coast (6–9 September, www.florafestival.com.au) and regularly attracts over 60,000 people!

 






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