Australia: Over 120,000 attend Melbourne Flower and Garden Show
The MIFGS attracts more than 120,000 visitors each year, bringing together the cream of the nursery, landscaping and cut flower industries. First place in the Growers Avenue Best in Show award for floristry went to Monvale Flowers from Silvan, with second place going to TNB Tulips from Monbulk and third to Koomens Flowers, also from Monbulk.
Helen Bye, creator of the Koomens Flowers display, said she liked this year's creation more than last, even though last year she won first place. "I like the freshness and the clean lines of the greens and whites in this year's display,'' she said. Ms Bye utilised the crystal stands she uses for weddings to create a garden of crisp, white shrubs made of flowers.
"I specialise in weddings and thought, why not do that? People love a bit of bling.''
"They looked especially lovely with the exhibition lights shining through them.''
Ms Bye goes to the Melbourne Wholesale Market three times a week to source flowers and has a workshop in Maribyrnong, Melbourne.
Over the 30 years of her career she's seen things people increasingly spend more money on flowers, often decorating their entire reception with flowers.
"Because of the internet world people see what's going on overseas and they want that,'' she said.
"People bring you more and more ideas to create and they get bigger and bigger.''
The Floral Gift awards went to: Bernadette Curry in first place, Nici Thompson in second place and Janet Alesich third for their arrangements.
Outside, Seasons Landscape won Best Outdoor Exhibit, with Terry Meehan and Steve Day's garden creation of Dr Seuss' The Lorax.
The rest of the Seasons Landscape display was themed "Melbourne Culture'', featuring a cafe, garden art gallery, movie cinema and a mini football field.
It was Terry's 13th year at the Garden Show and this was his fourth gold medal in a row.
"The inspiration was that we needed to do something different after so many years,'' he said.
"It was a little bit different to everything else at the show because we didn't want to do anything we'd done before.''
It took 15 people working 12 hours a day for eight days straight to create the display, which was removed as soon as the doors to the show closed last night.
"It's back to the parkland that it was - which is a little bit heartbreaking actually,'' Terry said.
"We recycle just about everything we use. It goes back to the nursery or back to storage to next year.''
Body art was another feature of the display, with Emma Hack - who did the body art for singer Gotye's film clip for Somebody That I Used To Know - painting Adelaide model Letitia Fitzpatrick with flowers.
Scott Wynd and Darin Bradbury from TLC landscape design won Best in Show and gold in the Show Garden award for their urban courtyard creation, utilising bamboo and other low-maintenance foliage to introduce a bit of nature back into the city.
"The design is based on a small, Collingwood or Fitzroy courtyard - it's only an 8 x 8m space,'' Scott said.
"We have got the fundamentals of an outdoor kitchen or barbeque - it's about having a lot of revenge of plant life into that space.
"Plant life enriches life and makes you feel better, and we're trying to bring that back in rather than the very harsh landscapes we've seen.''
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au
