Austraflora picked the sunniest day of the week to visit the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show! It was incredibly busy for a Wednesday, with crowds of people keen to be inspired by designs and the latest plants and gardening products. We decided to do something a little different this year rather than the usual mass of photos, and bring you a Live feed via Facebook instead. If you missed them, you can find the clips on our Video page.

A fabulous addition to MIFGS was the Retail Stand – a smaller outdoor stage, with plenty of DIY, product launches and general garden Q&A. Austraflora was also lucky enough to meet with The Gardenettes and enjoy their Autumn Gardening talk. There were lots of exciting new companies this year featuring some really smart ideas. We particularly loved the women’s gardenwear from Green Hip! The gardens once again were absolutely amazing – Lots of natural stone used to create relaxed and “easy” sitting areas, a big use of grasses for added texture, and an almost “cottage-like” layering technique. There was a focus on succulents this year. Strong and striking forms and less reliance on flowers for colour; lots of foliage colour with deep greens, greys and purples. Although many of the big gardens lacked in flowers, throughout the show there was quite a big focus on edible flowers. It was a really novel and interesting idea! Vertical and roof-top gardens again were a big part of the show, and compact gardening for small and low-maintenance spaces; important for today’s gardens.

Austraflora plants included Banksia Birthday Candles, Dianella Goddess, and Grevillea Jelly Baby. We also loved the bringing back of less popular natives such as croweas, and ptilotus!

Unfortunately we didn’t get to meet with last year’s Austraflora Photo Comp winner, Chris Tate, but he informed us he had a wonderful time, and stay in Melbourne.

Here’s a slideshow of our day! Hope you enjoyed the Facebook Live feed, and we hope to bring you more soon 🙂

 

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