Queensland Garden Expo 2024
4 – 7 July 2024
Nambour Showgrounds, Coronation Avenue, Nambour.
Entry is free for children aged 15 and under
The Queensland Garden Expo, a horticultural staple in Australia for four decades, is gearing up for its 40th anniversary celebration with an extended four-day event.
The Nambour Showgrounds will once again host a seven-hectare immersive gardening experience, featuring Australia’s largest gardening speaker program including crowd favourites like Costa Georgiadis, Sophie Thomson, Jerry Coleby-Williams, and Phil Dudman, plus celebrations to recognise the pivotal role of exhibitors since the Expo began in 1985. There will also be more than more than 150 free lectures and demonstrations, 8 live speaker stages, and 50,000 plants for sale each day.
Event Manager Marion Beazley said, with over 360 exhibitors offering an extensive range of gardening-related knowledge and products, this year’s four-day event will bring together Australia’s gardening royalty, local permaculture and community groups, and more than 55 growers and nurseries who all share their wealth of knowledge with Expo visitors.
“The event was conceived by a group of Sunshine Coast Nursery Industry people who wanted to share their love of gardening and knowledge with local gardeners, and has grown year-on-year to the gardener’s paradise our visitors travel far and wide for,” said Ms Beazley. “Since its inception, we estimate that the Queensland Garden Expo has welcomed close to 1 million visitors and has contributed over $200 million to the Sunshine Coast economy.”
“You definitely don’t need to be a pro gardener to have a great time at the Expo as we have something for everyone – from absolute amateurs to fanatical green thumbs and everyone in between!”
Ms Beazley said they will also be honouring the Queensland Garden Expo’s long-time exhibitors, some of whom have been selling plants and gardening wares since the Expo began in 1985. One exhibitor, Peter Heaton of Heatons Nursery – a family owned, indoor plant nursery established in 1976 based upon an extensive private collection of ferns that also expanded into anthuriums – has been attending the Expo since its inception with the third generation of the family now presenting talks at the event.
“It takes years to grow our plants – in some cases, 10 years before an anthurium is at a point where it’s ready to sell as a mature plant in a nursery or at an event like the Expo,” Mr Heaton said. “The wait from tissue culture to sale is well worth it, however, showing off how spectacular these plants are at the show.”
For ticketing and further information, visit the Queensland Garden Expo website
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