Everything is coming up roses for garden-lovers as the Sunshine Coast prepares to host the Queensland Garden Expo, a three-day celebration of flower power in July.
What’s better than peace, love and flowers? Nothing, so get yourself to the Sunny Coast for a floral fix next month.
The 36th annual Queensland Garden Expo will take place from 9-11 July at the Nambour Showgrounds, with over seven hectares of inspiration for both experienced gardeners and more recent ‘converts’.
Held at a perfect time for winter escapes to the Sunshine Coast, with July daytime temperatures usually in the early to mid 20C’s, the Queensland Garden Expo will tap into Australians’ passion for gardening with 350 exhibitors — including 55 nurseries — and some 45 guest speakers, presenting a fertile program for nature lovers.
The program includes ‘Back to Basics’ talks each day to encourage visitors who are new to gardening, in addition to the wide range of gardening topics that have become firm favourites with more experienced gardeners.
Attendees will be able to learn, explore and get inspired; and can then find everything they need at the Expo, including a choice of more than 60,000 plants ready for sale each day of the event.
A truly family-friendly event, children will be entertained with a range of interactive sessions such as kids craft and seed planting, along with a free kids playground.
Queensland Garden Expo Chairman Simon Smith said that lockdowns and the ban on overseas travel had created a situation where people were ‘stuck’ at home so they took the opportunity to invest their money and transform their gardens.
“Many home owners renovated their gardens or incorporated food producing trees and shrubs which led to strong wholesale and retail sales,” Mr Smith said.
“With food shortage fears and people wanting to limit trips to the shops there was also a boom in the sales of all things edible. Fruit trees and vegetable seedlings in particular became very hard to source.
“Another growth area was indoor foliage lines, which the Nursery Industry Survey reported grew by 9 per cent last year. With people spending more time inside their homes, indoor plants have become exceptionally popular.”
“There is no better time to get back into your garden and plant out that veggie patch you always wanted, drop in your own small fruit orchard, create a Balinese-themed garden in your pool area, build a native wildlife-friendly garden or create your own indoor plant utopia,” Mr Smith said.
The Queensland Garden Expo speaker program is the biggest in Australia and will welcome back crowd-favourites such as ABC’s Gardening Australia gurus Sophie Thomson, Costa Georgiadis and Jerry Coleby-Williams as well as event favourites Adam Woodhams, Dr Kevin Redd and Phil Dudman.
Tickets are $20 for adults, while children under 15 are free.
A range of special accommodation deals are available for stays on the Sunshine Coast over the weekend and can be accessed here.
Click here for more information.