Premier gardening event — the Queensland Garden Expo — is on track to welcome thousands of visitors from far and wide to a three-day celebration of all things gardening at Nambour Showgrounds this weekend from Friday.

Queensland Garden Expo Event Manager Marion Beazley said while it was disappointing that the 2020 Expo had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, an increase in gardening interest provided an exciting opportunity for this year’s event to attract new visitors.

“With so many people housebound, there was a huge curiosity in growing food like herbs and vegetables and before long people were ready to get their hands dirty for a complete home garden makeover,” Ms Beazley said. 

“We’re confident the Queensland Garden Expo will provide ample opportunity to nurture this newfound love for gardening with 350 exhibitors — including 55 nurseries — and  guest speakers presenting an action-packed program.

“Attendees can 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.”

Queensland Garden Expo Chairman and Bluesky Nursery Marketing Manager Simon Smith said without doubt COVID-19 restrictions and the ban on overseas travel 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.”

The 36th annual Queensland Garden Expo will take place from 9-11 July at the Nambour Showgrounds.

“The Expo caters for all plant lovers and this year will be no different. Our quality growers are strategic in setting aside and growing plant lines so that our visitors always have a broad and interesting range of plants to choose from,” Mr Smith said.

“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.

The Queensland Garden Expo speaker program has been hit by the recent Covid scare and quarantine complications have meant some crowd-favourites, including Sophie Thomson and Costa Georgiadis of Gardening Australia fame, have had to withdraw. 

Event details

• Where: Nambour Showgrounds, Coronation Avenue, Nambour.

• When: Friday, 9 July to Sunday, 11 July 2021.

• Opening times: Gates open 8:00am daily.

• Gates close 5pm Friday and Saturday; 4:00pm Sunday.

• Tickets: Tickets available for purchase at www.qldgardenexpo.com.au.

• Adult entry – $20

• Children 15 years and under – Free

• Groups of 10 or more – $18 each

• Two-day weekend pass (Saturday and Sunday) – $35

• Three-day pass – $50