Gardeners will find an array of plants on display at this two-day event, from young gardens with specialty plantings to an ageing country paradise boasting trees over 100 years old – it promises to delight and amuse!
The Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges offer towering vineyards, charming villages, and beautifully maintained gardens – ideal places for experiencing cool-climate wine tasting and enjoying regional cuisine. Immerse yourself in this region for an experience you won’t soon forget!
Tesselaar Tulip Festival
Tesselaar Tulip Festival is the place to be when flowers bloom! Held annually in Silvan, Victoria this event showcases an extraordinary display of blooming tulips on a farm and features food and market stalls, Dutch costumes, tractor rides, sculpture exhibitions and replica windmills for visitors’ delight. Additionally there are activities specifically tailored for both children and senior participants during school holidays – don’t miss it!
The Tesselaar Tulip Festival is an unforgettable experience for flower enthusiasts and families. Set across 25 acres, it includes over 900,000 tulips from 130 varieties spanning 25 acres – not to mention other spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, ranunculus and anemones!
Tesselaar is a family-run business and the Tesselaar Tulip Festival is their way of giving back to their community. Entry is free for everyone and there are numerous activities for children to enjoy such as roving entertainers, Tulip Fairy stories in her fairy garden, historical displays and various tulip related games for participants to take part in and enjoy.
An exhilarating tractor ride through a farm offers you an immersive view of all its vibrant blooms – making this unique event an experience you won’t find elsewhere in Australia!
At only an hour’s drive from Melbourne, visiting Tesselaar Tulip Festival is easy. Parking is provided free of charge on site while dogs on leashes are welcomed as visitors.
At the entrance to the festival is Tesselaar Museum. Here you’ll be provided with an insight into the history and growth of tulips in Australia as well as interactive displays showing their cultivation as well as changes over time within the bulb industry.
For more information on this year’s Tesselaar Tulip Festival event, be sure to visit its official website. You can use Google Map here as well; simply enter your starting and destination points for a detailed route plan of how you can reach each.
CherryHill Blossom Festival
CherryHill Orchards offer an enjoyable half-day adventure only a short drive from Melbourne, featuring rows upon rows of blossoming cherry trees transforming to white in time for their annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Held during peak season, this festival includes photography masterclasses, photography workshops with beekeeping experts for children to learn how they pollinate blossoms, fairy crown making activities, photography masterclasses, beekeeping lessons for adults as well as plenty of tasty cherry treats such as the world renowned Spritzer drink or delectable cherry ice-cream!
At this fair, all 40 stallholders are growers – meaning they not only sell but propagate plants for their nurseries as well. It provides an ideal opportunity to find unusual or rare species not readily available at traditional garden centres. There’s even an impressive speaker’s stage with Sophie Thomson and other leading voices from the gardening world!
Underneath an abundance of blooms you can wander the gardens at Coombe Estate amidst their stunning array of blooms; through hedge tunnels, winding cobbled pathways, terraced lawns and rose arbours. Once home to famed opera singer Dame Nellie Melba’s domain, these three-hectare gardens now remain one of the region’s best kept secrets – trace old-world pathways through sequences of cypress hedges while enjoying views of native, Italian and vegetable gardens at this picturesque estate.
Dandenong Ranges are an idyllic weekend retreat, boasting towering gum trees clad in deep green shades, steam trains chugging across photo-worthy trestle bridges and inviting lunch dwellings to dine at. But the Dandenongs offer much more than simply lush surrounds: wineries and food lovers will also find plenty to celebrate during Yarra Valley Harvest Food and Wine Show and Cider Festival; Shedfest brings together artisans while cellar door restaurants put forward their best for Yarra Valley Restaurant Week; while numerous agricultural shows feature everything from tulips and freesias all the way to Rhodendrons, camellias and azaleas!
Warratina Harvest Lavender Festival
Yarra Valley is famed for its wineries and scenic landscapes, but what really sets the region apart are its gardens. At Coombe Estate visitors can take a guided tour through three-hectare gardens set behind an amazing long cypress hedge for breakfast or afternoon tea or lunch on guided tour accompanied by morning or afternoon tea or lunch service or morning/afternoon tea/lunch packages; additionally there’s also a garden shop selling seeds/flowers plus local cuisine served at a cafe serving lunch service!
Warratina Lavender Farm offers visitors an unforgettable lavender festival each November on its picturesque 10-acre property. Established by Annemarie in 1991 as a hobby farm, Warratina Lavender Farm has since evolved to become a tourist attraction open all year long; although peak lavender blooming period runs between mid-November and January. Workshops, tours and product tasting are amongst other experiences offered here; plus they regularly host maker’s markets as well as hosting an Expo dedicated solely to wood working.
Visitors to the farm can also experience gin or rum tasting, lavender wreath making workshops, trivia competitions and performances by bagpipers, Irish dancers and acoustic duos. And of course, during these activities the farm offers its famous lavender shortbread treats!
For an immersive gardening experience, the festival’s annual Gardeners Market features an abundance of plants for sale from both local and national exhibitors, in addition to hosting talks by gardening experts and professional horticulturists.
Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges are within an easy 1.5-hour drive from Melbourne, while Tullamarine Airport lies only 40 minutes south. There are various means of getting there; car rental is one option while guided tours or direct flights may also be an option; Tullamarine or Avalon airports provide direct flights directly from Melbourne while Melbourne Central train/coach services also operate direct routes there – more information on these destinations can be found online at their respective websites.
Yarra Valley Autumn Plant Fair
This two-day plant fair takes place annually in autumn and spring with over 5,000 varieties of plants for purchase on site. Landscape and urban garden specialists are also present throughout both days to share their knowledge on plants, gardens and equipment for your enjoyment.
Gardening enthusiasts will discover an immense selection of stalls offering everything from rare and unusual cacti, succulents and orchids to lush tropical flowers and shrubs, perennial shade-loving plants like ferns and bromeliads; perennial herbs & spices; indoor/outdoor plants; pots/containers/mulches/fertilisers; gardening tools etc – everything that gardening enthusiasts could ever want will be available here!
Larkman’s Nursery will host this event at its Wandin location at 125 Quayle Road from 10am-5pm both days. Special guest speakers will present talks covering all aspects of gardening from growing edible home gardens to finding suitable trees for your landscape – not to mention workshops and demonstrations hosted throughout.
There will be a wide selection of plants and gardening accessories on offer at this year’s Garden Expo; as well as specialist stalls specializing in specific plant or collection types or species. Barambah Rare Plants will feature rare exotic species from Brugmansia Genus; there will also be vintage heritage rose varieties as well as David Austin varieties on sale at various stalls.
Other specialist exhibitors at this year’s show include Grow Vertical and NZ Fernwood Tree Fern Fiber with their advanced vertical plant supports and innovative trellising systems, respectively. Other stalls will display ornamental and indigenous plants alongside outdoor furniture to complete the experience.
As well as offering fresh produce, this event features food stalls and local wine tasting. Perfect for people of all ages – even your four-legged companions are welcome if on leads – this is an opportunity to satisfy your gardening passion while tasting some of Yarra Valley’s finest produce!