Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 2023 | GARDEN | Great Home Ideas

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[Applause] remember when you were a child and waiting for your birthday to arrive the excitement was almost too much when the big day came well Graham Melissa and Charlie have been almost imploding with anticipation because the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show is back it has been three long excruciating

Years but finally landscapers and horticulturalists are gathering together for the southern hemisphere’s largest flower shop and we’ve got all the highlights March 2020 and for the first time in 25 years Calon Gardens in the heart of Melbourne is silent the southern hemisphere’s biggest Garden Show cancelled tens of thousands of show

Visitors isolating in their homes but not this year yep Australia’s best Garden designers are returning in an explosion of color and excitement the Melbourne International flow and Garden Show is back and behind me the excitement is quite palpable it’s just fantastic to see as these beautiful

Gardens all come to life I reckon it’s definitely all hands to the pump including me okay so where do these go thanks J brilliant we got fall in love the way we light our just making me this Garden is called more than meets the eye and it’s a collaboration between

Warner’s nurseries and designer Robert Bole and doesn’t it make the most of this spectacular view this is actually six Gardens in one there’s a pagola at the end to take in This Magnificent view there’s an Avenue of Silver Birch underplanted with the most magnificent display of hydranga s free to the front

On the right a Mediterranean Garden where Warners are really showing off their plant stock with some incredible incredible chukri and balls there’s a Parkland Garden a woodland garden and a pretty Specky veggie patch too if I was hit by a bus and woke up to find this I would be in absolute Heaven

This Garden is spectacular it’s got everything you could ever need there’s a small seating area lovely rustic materials fantastic shutters but all the fruit and veg you could ever need and they’ve been really clever with the use of space we’ve got a b hedge that overlaps a spalled citrus a spalled

Nashy pears and take a look at the spectacular produce this Garden is spot On across the Avenue is this lovely Woodland garden and you’ve got this canopy from these amazing gko bobas this layout is really quite simple there’s a pathway with a pot simple water feature and a lovely bench seat to relax the clever thing though is the block planting so that just gives repetition

To these rectangular and square shapes and that gives it a cohesiveness another thing I really like is this cute little Windflower just sitting underneath the bench Seat balconies can often be quite challenging environments to Garden in you find yourself asking the question how can I make the most of that small space and still create an inviting area that I want to be in well the balcony Gardens at this year’s show are a new edition

And while the show gardens are just spectacular you’ll find plenty of ideas for small gardens right here this Garden shows you that you don’t just have to have one plant in one pot you can have a lot of fun jumbling together different flowers and foliage to create a potted combo like this so

That no matter what time of year you look out onto your balcony there’s color and Interest often in a small space things have to be multi-purpose so I’m loving the way this planter box triples as a garden bed seat and storage Space on a balcony don’t forget to make use of any vertical space that you’ve got and put some decorative planters up filled with wonderful cascading plants like trailing succulents and chain of hearts and remember that often balconies are really quite tough environments for plants to grow in they might be subject

To high winds lots of Sun so take a leaf out of this Garden book and she’s some really tough plants like Biz Mark here I’ve got some trailing dondra Silver Falls here and beautiful Agave the Creator of this Garden has had over a dozen amazing show gardens here at mfkas he’s won medals here and of course he’s won medals overseas in New Zealand Garden shows as well Christian Jenkins and this masterpiece is inner calm so what’s you got fantastic plants

Look at the yeah typical plants simple plants gardinas Laura petum the China pink fabulous plant and this beautiful lime I love it little dwarf Nandina the Japanese bamboo and then lots of other regular plants like Xanadu philad so they’re regular Plants but then he’s got some Chinese Palms Mexican palms and how

About these two giant drino Draco the dragon trees aren’t they spectacular they’re really amazing I just love this Garden it is over the top but you know it’s just that creating that that lovely exuberance that so many of us really love and long for in our Gardens just somewhere

Where you can get that in a piece I think it’s Great I knew I could get old when it comes to designing a garden it’s all about interpreting a client’s brief they may want a place to relax and be emotive in they may just want a place to kick the football around with the kids this Garden is called tram lines

And it has accessibility at its very core it was designed in collaboration with all around super Superstar and Australian of the Year Dylan orot hello Ma how are you welcome thank you very much thank you for coming yeah so what was your involvement in the space yeah so we had a few design

Meetings obviously um I’m very passionate about accessibility and disability inclusion yes and when you do accessibility from the start from the ground up it can be sexy it can be cool if you look around you might not even notice some of the accessibility features for example so you got that

Little white thing there that’s for people who are low vision so they don’t hurt themselves in the corner okay um we’ve got little seats for people like me and wheelchairs to get in there we had people with disability work on the garden as well yeah and the coolest part

About it this thing is getting auctioned off 100% of the proceeds going to the Dylan orot Foundation to help young Australians with disability achieve their dreams it’s pretty cool to be involved in and uh one last question the grass do you prefer playing on grass or

Mate I well I never lost a match with wimon so I’ll take that but I’m a gardener now I’m a gardener so that’s my new job which is cool yeah as a tennis player I make an excellent Gardener as well yeah exactly good I appreciate It This is amazing these collection of gardens here Melissa I’m really excited to see them here for this year yes the boutique Garden so each Garden is about 8 m by 8 m which is perfect for the home Gardener and there are a lot of different messages the one behind us is

Called coming soon now you might think it’s about maybe the bush fires or the floods there’s water collapsing houses and a lot of people around the country are experiencing that but no it’s what has led to those disasters it is it’s all about climate change you can see the house is sinking

In the background here wildlife and plants are taking over now you might be wondering what the 2.6 billion Square met are so 2.6 billion square meters is the area of trees that will be deforested in the period of the show so just in the 5 days

Of the show that’s how much we’ll lose that is a staggering figure but there is a bit of optimism I’m going this way yes let’s look at some more Gardens I got to say I am loving this Garden Allison Douglas was here a couple of years ago at mfus and it’s it’s great to see her back she has a great talent in fact she’s created something here that is looking to the Future it’s a Japanese garden called elements now all

Japanese Gardens for four or 500 years have had the same elements fire rocks plants and of course water the minimalistic colors are fantastic now the elements of design when you stand up on the top you can see it’s the triangles the rectangles the seating and then of course this great

Expanse of black water and the planting there’s corers and of course these beautiful tree ferns lots of Aussie natives except this big fell it’s aissa from America it’s the Tapo and it’s a beautiful tree and great garden design I think it’s Stunning cuz I made you question what was supposed to be this is called an intimate garden and it certainly is what I’m really loving about this Garden is you could quite literally pick it up and Transplant it to your own garden at home it’s just such an achievable beautiful garden I’m

Also loving the color palette so there’s lots of green foliage and white flowers which is a really calming combination and that green contrasts beautifully with the black and the gray of the hard Landscaping there’s also plenty of seats to sit back and enjoy this space I’m

Also spotting a lot of my favorite plant plants in this Garden so I’m a big fan of the Oakleaf hyd Ranger which bursts into flower in the summer and those lovely white flowers actually take on tints of pink and violet as summer turns to Autumn time I also love the crepe

Myrtles and The White Flower and crepe myrtle is just spectacular great bark great flowers just a great all Round Tree girl [Applause] not long ago the Royal exhibition building was Victoria’s biggest vaccination Hub but now it’s been transformed into a sea of color and movement as the Great Hall of flowers so you’ll find amazing floral displays workshops in a flower market but one of my favorites is always the floral Fashion a highlight of the show is always the rmit floral Fashions where students get a chance to Showcase these amazing plant-based Creations on a world scale now this here the theme is indigen sustainability and diversity it’s quite fascinating to see how each student has interpreted that theme differently to bring these designs to

Life yeah we’re ready to Go you can always rely on Collector’s Corner to create something wild and wacky and take a look at this so This Garden is inspired by the tree of life from Avatar and so on one side you’ll find a desert jungle filled with lots of unusual looking cacti and succulents on

The other side you’ll find a jungle Valley with lots of lush green foliage shades of violet and cream and these really big amethyst caves which form a real feature in the design but when it comes to plants I think this is one of my favorites have a look at this this is

The monkey tail Cactus it’s just so unusual looking to me it looks a little bit like Cousin It the Great Hall of flowers also provides a wonderful opportunity for florists to Showcase their artistic skills so just take a look at the detail in this picture each of those flower shapes is formed using individual blooms seed heads or Fage what a great way to let your hair down after Lockdown one of my great interests is the Australian Garden Council our objectives there are to engage with high school students to get them to look at a long-term lifelong career in gardening and autom metal horiculture and I think I found a young fell excuse me guys

Peter good gr how are you I’ve got an amazing show Garden I want to introduce you too let’s go have a Look what do you think this is incredible Pete it’s got everything going for it this is Mark brownings amazing garden now Mark has actually had gold Gardens here and Gardens at Chelsea he’s an absolute star when it comes to creating beautiful gardens plants construction design and a backstory

About his mom so everything is in this Garden what do you think Pete it absolutely is it’s an awesome Garden great design I love the Magnolias and the Japanese maples it just sets the garden off it’s absolutely beautiful so you think landscape design might be or

Construction might be a way for you in the future definitely I’ve always had a Fascination within the industry um and garden design so I can definitely see myself pursuing that in the future and you started gardening when you were eight in your grandmother’s Garden that’s correct um when I was around

About 8 years old it just kind of opened up my passion um only a small garden but it was enough for me to you know get my hands dirty and you know get to feel what it’s really like to work in a garden so when did the gardening thing

Start to evolve at High School yep so um I recently got the opportunity to start uh studying my certificate 2 in horiculture with homes Glenn oh through the school correct so through high school um I was able to you know develop my passion um and actually start

Studying it for a qualification um so that’s been really really great and it’s absolutely opened up so many opportunities over the last few years fantastic Pete well we’ve got more gardens to see mate come [Applause] on I want you replay every day making me glorious today Euphoria you and I create a little Bab This Garden is called apertura and it’s been designed by former best in show winners Vivid design and the experience really shows you can imagine this Garden in any contemporary house across Australia the standout feature of this garden and how it gets his name is this incredible espad Olive now this was

Supposed to be in the show to years years ago but the extra growth has just made it look even more spectacular the hole cut in the center gives you a lovely view through to the back of the garden which adds depth and just shows off the Fantastic zel covers but as

Autumn rolls on and they become redder and redder this is only going to get better another thing I love is this Paving now this is classic Melbourne Paving combination of recycled bricks and blue stone but it doesn’t matter where you’re gardening in Australia this feature is going to look great the

Planting is also spectacular you’ve got a combination of uprights with the ScanThis in the brora but then rounded shrubs from the buxus the rapsis but I love the pops of purple in the agastache and the [Applause] Sedums one day at [Applause] A one of my favorite parts of the show is the emergent Gardens now this is where young and upcoming design designers get to have a crack at show gardens this year’s theme is pollinators and pollinating and they’ve come up with some cracking designs when they want to leave you them

I’m this Garden by chinlu has a sophistication of a designer with much more experience I really love the vertical accents cuz they frame The View and change it as you walk through the garden but there’s one that has really caught my fancy it’s by Kate Johnson Kate hello what a fantastic Garden

Congratulations thank you very much tell me a little bit about what what you’ve done here uh so I’ve created a Children’s Garden y I wanted it to be fun somewhere you can have an endless imagination basically I’ve taken some inspiration from the TV show Bluey I

Know the episode I know it well yeah they at the playground they’re bored somewhere like this um you know you could play forever I think the best bit of player equipment you can give a kid is their imagination and this Garden is fantastic how have you found building a

Garden at Melbourne great uh come on say it with a bit more so stressful so stressful so exciting had uh adrenaline the whole time and uh yeah I’ll do it again congratulations yeah I’m sure you will do another one it looks absolutely amazing well done thank you ask for

This but it’s my time and it’s your time and it’s all time to call Us it’s of all the gardens we’ve shown you on tonight’s show this is possibly in some ways the most important of them all it’s a garden created by the tree and shrub Growers of Victoria they’re the people who supply all the trees and shrubs to your local garden center right

Throughout the country in fact and the garden is called resilience I’m not up I’m not giv it up I’m not up I’m not up there have been a couple of words that we’ve used a lot in the Press over the last two years pivoting unprecedented but you know when

You look back and look today and look into the future it’s resilience and the resilience of the Australian Community what started out as Bush fries on the East Bush fries in the west two years ago have become floods and then of course the pandemic guarding at that

Time abs absolutely took off in March 2020 and it’s just continued to grow with your participation and your resilience and that’s why they decided that this would be the name and the title for this beautiful garden so I guess when you come to have

A look at this Garden have a look at the flowers the color and the way that the plants have been arranged and take away some ideas talk to the guys and the girls that are on this it’ll help you with your resilience and the country’s

Resilience as I say I think it’s one of the most important Gardens that we could show you it’s a beautiful place to Be all the we’ve been through you’re all I needed M I Can’t Get Enough I want you to know when I’m around you love I through the lens is a garden that celebrates neurodiversity so it explores the sensory processing challenges often faced by people with Autism in a garden

That invites you to wander and take some time to relax the world I just want you Pi my to so you’ll find plants that you can touch and feel like the soft Australian woolly Bush alongside other plants that might have beautiful smells so this is the

Hocm and this one is called the licorice plant but the leaves smell a little bit like aniseed you’ll also find splashes of color in the form of plants like colus as well as Edibles and other plants that appeal to the senses above and beyond the five sensors

There are two other senses in autism therapy so propri reception which is about muscle memory and posture and vestibular which is about balance and judgment and so this unique little play Space explores those two senses with this cute little memory game and kids can practice their balance by whining

Their way through the mandra and best of all at the end of the show this whole play Space is going to a special need school I do all this just because I roll anywhere I’ll do anything I will walk through fire just to hear you sing I’ll go anywhere I’ll do anything for

You just Because I’m Hypno by you hypnotized by you we have seen all the gardens but which one is the winner I know it’s always a big question here drum roll please hey Tada look at this congratulations thank you gold gold gold for Australia well done incredible and 15 years you’ve been

Creating Gardens here at the flower show how do you feel uh feel it’s euphoric you know it’s just a a beautiful morning and I’m just really just taking it all in do you have a favorite part of the garden the elephant set the tone to the

Entrance Y and the trees the the the the dragon trees the dragon trees how did you get those in here we craned them into the Lagoon on Sunday wow fantastic plants in fact design construction plants the water the whole thing just comes together Christian Jenkins congratulations Best in Show 2022 thank you very Muchy so happy for you happy happy happy for you I’m happy so happy way it’s